Many Disney fans will only know Topher Grace for his role on the popular Fox series That 70’s Show, but the actor recently appeared on the D23 Podcast and revealed that the executive producer and New York City native has a surprisingly strong Disney fanatic side!
NEW: @HomeEconABC star @TopherGrace on kissing @MissPiggy, the story behind that Club 33 t-shirt, and how the original Disney-MGM Studios inspired him to move to Hollywood: https://t.co/h9UVWiVxr3
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Apple: https://t.co/x9Tlf6U2gX#D23InsideDisney pic.twitter.com/XqhKcMEJzQ— Disney D23 (@DisneyD23) March 17, 2022
On his current TV show, ABC series Home Economics, the wardrobe department was able to design a faux Club 33 T-shirt for Topher (that had to be “cleared by Club 33” first) as well — but actually, Topher has already been invited into the Disney’s famous secret establishment, Club 33, for a visit! “I went to Club 33 once,” the father of two said on the podcast. “I knew someone who knew someone…[and] we got to cut all the [Disney] lines that day [with] someone giving us a tour, and they showed us…Club 33, which was amazing to have lunch there — and by the way the food is insane, it really is what people brag about”.
Topher was also shown the exclusive Dream Suite, and said that his “dream is to stay in the one in Orlando.” He’ll have to ask Descendants actress Sofia Carson what it was like first!
“I know I’m lucky,” he added when discussing the special access to Disney that he’s gotten as a celebrity (and as a star on an ABC show). “So anyone who’s listening, saying ‘that’s not fair’ — I agree. I don’t think it’s fair.”
Topher discussed several pieces of interesting Disney trivia, including the basketball court at the Matterhorn and Walt Disney’s famous lamp-lighting story from Disneyland Resort.
The actor and executive producer even impressed the D23 interviewers by revealing that his “happiest single place on earth” as a child was Sid Cahuenga’s One of a Kind Antiques and Curios shop, which was a Disney store that sold memorabilia like movie posters!
Topher also revealed that he actually gets extremely emotional “watching Walt Disney’s plans for EPCOT, when he walks you through what the town is going to be. I went to EPCOT in the early 80’s,” he reminisced. “[it was a] new Park and my parents took me to and it was great. But what his ideas were for what that could be as, like, a living community…it was kind of like a self-sustaining community that probably would have changed the world. And then you can’t do it once the guy passes away. It doesn’t have the energy behind it.”
Topher also revealed a deep admiration for Walt Disney himself, which is something that the actor has in common with many other Disney fans or Disney fanatics. “These geniuses, we only have them for such a short time…There’s always this one person who is this incredible visionary…I so respect what he was doing…I mean to me, just that a guy sat around and thought of the idea of Disneyland is like crazy. And then what it takes to make something like that”!
Topher even pulled out some of his own Disney literature during the podcast interview, citing the Disney book “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination” while he was praising the Disney animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from 1938. “I can’t believe he made one film that good, [let alone that he] then sat around and was like, ‘wait, what about if people could go into the films’? I just, I love it. I love it.”
Disney also apparently played a part in this actor’s career choice! In seventh grade, Topher was having a tough time. But, he said to D23, “when I went to MGM Studios, I made a secret with myself that I was gonna move to Hollywood [and that] if Hollywood is one, one-hundredth what this is, I’m gonna do it.” And he did!
Topher Grace’s passion for filmmaking and his enthusiasm for Disney and Pixar movies even led to him cutting and editing the trailer for Toy Story 4! He’s also gone to Pixar Animation Studios in person. Did you know that this Spider-Man 3 actor (who played Eddie Brock and Venom opposite Tobey Maguire in the Marvel and Sony Pictures movie) was such a big Disney fanatic?
