Forums: Topher Grace Board: The Rules of Attraction re: Topher Grace

Are there any similar reasons why we are all attracted to Mr. Grace? What is it that we want from him? He is remotely available to us on a TV screen, in a movie theater, in print, but really he is far, far away. Yet there is something about his being alive that nourishes us, and enriches our own lives, even from afar.

There is in Mr. Grace and his work a quality of fascination and magnetism that is common among great artists. The kind of work he creates as a performing artist is the same kind of thing I look for when I study a visual artist. As a sculptor, I look at the work of other sculptors, and when I find work that generates an inevitable internal response, I examine more of that sculptor's work, and maybe even read a biography or some interviews. After seeing the film "P.S.", Mr. Grace generated in me this kind of response, and so I looked a little deeper to see what I could find. I found movies with large and small roles, a treasure trove of "That 70's Show" episodes, and the occasional and not always credible bit in print or on the internet. You gather your research, look for patterns and repetitions, and try to piece it together. Simultaneously, you are doing your own work, and that work is somehow influenced by this actor whom you've never even met. He hasn't actually entered your bloodstream, the way that F. Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace) entered the bloodstream of Louise Harrington (Laura Linney) in "P.S.", but he has become an influence.

For example, Mr. Grace has said -- or at least the magazines would have us believe -- that he admires the work of Bill Murray and Bob Newhart. Somewhere along the way, he has seen their films and/or TV shows, and perhaps internalized an expression or a mannerism from them. That same expression or mannerism might show up in a "That 70's Show" episode. That is an example of a direct influence. When you switch crafts, such as when an actor's performance influences the creation of a sculpture, the influence can be more subtle, and maybe not even verbally explicable, but it's there.

In this way, our obssessions, or attractions, or guilty pleasures -- however it is that we relate to Mr. Grace -- become useful. I do not want to marry him and have his children, or stalk him, or fantasize. I just want to follow his career, watch from a comfortable distance without being invasive, and learn as much as possible.