'COMPANY' MAN UP-AND-COMING ACTOR TOPHER GRACE LIVES A PRETTY MUNDANE LIFE - AND LIKES IT THAT WAY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

When Topher Grace made a snarky cameo appearance as a Hollywood brat named, well, Topher Grace in ``Ocean's Eleven,'' he joked to George Clooney about how easy he expected it to be to make the move from TV to movie star.

In the recent ``Ocean's Twelve,'' playing the same inaccurate version of himself, Grace whines to Brad Pitt, ``I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie!''

Each scene is funny, due both to Grace's real, ego-free, down-to-earth personality and the nice-guy persona of Eric Forman, his character on the long-running sitcom ``That '70s Show.'' Nevertheless, the ``Eleven'' statement appears to be on the money: Grace is making the transition from television to movies quite remarkably well.

But there is no truth to the ``Twelve'' gag. That Quaid movie, ``In Good Company,'' which goes into wide release today, boasts a rich, deeply felt performance by Grace, which is all the more impressive for being consistently hilarious as well.

Following on the heels of a similarly comic/dramatic, though very different part in last fall's indie release ``P.S.'' opposite the formidable Laura Linney, ``Company'' confirms Grace's big-screen potential.

``What I really liked about 'P.S.' ... was hooking someone with the humor,'' says the actor, looking like the 26-year-old New England preppy that he is in a crisp blue shirt, slacks and perfectly combed hair. ``If you make someone laugh, something chemical is going on between the person in the audience and the person on screen. You kind of get them on your side a little bit; it's a great way to sugarcoat the pill.

``Another thing is, I've been really lucky to find two scripts in a row in which characters change a lot in the course of the film. ... It's impossible to throw emotion on a point no one cares about; it ends up gratuitous.''

In ``Company,'' Grace plays his age as 26-year-old hotshot executive Carter Duryea, who is all business-babble buzzwords and ruthless ambition when he gets put in charge of advertising at his multinational's new acquisition, a Sports Illustrated type of magazine. This knocks longtime head of advertising, Quaid's 51-year-old Dan Foreman, into a humiliating second-in-command position - or, as Carter likes to put it, Dan is now his wingman.

But Carter, not the complete creep he appears to be, realizes he has a lot to learn from Dan's old-school way of doing business. And being just-divorced himself, he envies the happy home life Dan enjoys with his newly pregnant wife and their two daughters.

Later, he develops a reciprocated attraction to the oldest Foreman girl, Alex (Scarlett Johansson). Yet even the outraged father finds it hard to totally dislike Carter. Audiences feel likewise. Which is not the same as saying you ever really trust the guy.

``I didn't really know Topher's work,'' says ``Company'' writer-director Paul Weitz (``American Pie,'' ``About a Boy''). ``I hadn't seen 'That `70s Show.' He just came in and auditioned numerous times, and he made me laugh the most, and he appeared sharky enough that someone would give him that kind of responsibility. Beyond that, he has a degree of vulnerability in there, but not the kind of vulnerability that is winking at the audience and saying, 'Hey, I'm a nice guy, don't worry.' I thought it was very important that one believe that he could fire Dennis Quaid; that was an important part of the jeopardy of the movie.''

``Carter's got everything on paper,'' Grace observes. ``His parents were both absent, but he's got the job and the right car and had the right wife and the right house. But once I go home to Dan's house, I start to actually see something that I really want but I don't know how to get. I always thought that he was dating Dan's daughter as a consolation prize for not actually being in the family.''

Grace's own family background reflects that of the movie's East Coast professional Foremans, if not ``That '70s Show's'' middle-class Midwestern Formans. He was raised in Darien, Conn., by a New York businessman and a mother who works at a private school.

``My dad commuted for 30 years into the city and worked in advertising at one point,'' Grace notes. ``In fact, we actually shot at a building where he worked once. So I told my dad about the script - he doesn't care one lick about acting, no one in my family does - but he said, uncharacteristically, 'You know, the gold watch that you got at retirement, it didn't used to be a kiss-off. It used to be a sign of loyalty or respect. Now it's just, 'Here's the watch, you're fired, we got a kid half as cheap as you with more energy.' ''

That Grace is in the position to make a movie that struck so close to home is partly due to his background as well. Not only has Darien produced the likes of fellow actors Kate Bosworth and Chloe Sevigny (once Topher's baby-sitter) and music star Moby, but the prep school he attended also boasted at least one daughter of key show-biz players.

``I had such an easy break,'' says Grace, whose pre- `` '70s Show'' ambition was to become a tennis pro. ``Basically, the parents of a girl who was in a play with me in high school were television producers who called me up; my first audition, ever, was for 'That '70s Show.' When I tell that story, my out-of-work actor friends hate me. But I want to earn it now. I really try to do films that I'm proud of, because I really feel like I have to earn it in retrospect.''

Grace, whose other movie credits include the respectable ``Traffic,'' ``Mona Lisa Smile'' and ``Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!'' (opposite Bosworth), also came by his unusual name at school.

``My mom is a Patricia trapped in a Pat,'' he says. ``She kind of talked me into what a cool name Christopher would be; I was with her on that. So I was, 'Yeah, when I go to boarding school, I'm gonna be Christopher Grace!' So I'd introduce myself like that, and they'd go, 'Hi, nice to meet you, Chris.' So I'd go, 'No, there's 'topher.' No one will call you Christopher in this lazy society.''

When that audition call yanked him out of his freshman year at USC, Topher fit right in with an eclectically named `` '70s Show'' cast that included Ashton Kutcher (whose real first name is also Christopher, Grace points out) and Wilmer Valderrama. Now, seven years later, Grace and Kutcher are about to complete their last season on the sitcom, which may or may not continue without them.

``It's been just wonderful, and it's so sad,'' Grace says of leaving his television home. ``First of all, I grew up with those kids, so they're like a family. But not in the way that all these sitcoms say they're like families. We were all in our teens; Mila Kunis was 14 years old when we shot the pilot. We really went through a lot of formative years together.

``There is no better job in the universe, I think. I never cry, almost ever, but I think on that last night I'm gonna shed a few tears.''

One thing to smile about: Grace is leaving the show a respected actor rather than a gossip-magnet celebrity like his oddly named colleagues Ashton and Wilmer.

``That's a sensitive subject for me,'' Grace says diplomatically. ``I just want to talk about my career because I can't really speak to other people's.''

Fair enough. But what's his secret? Other than not dating high-profile actresses of questionable age appropriateness, that is.

``I'm just a boring person, so I'm lucky, I guess,'' Grace says. ``I really am. I'm into board games. I have a Monopoly club, the way some people have a poker group. By the way, I'm undefeated. We recently just bought on the board game black market an unsanctioned by Parker Brothers Triopoly, which is three boards on top of each other. When you hit Free Parking, you actually travel up. There are 50 different states on it. It took us 12 hours to finish it.''

Wow, that is boring. As opposed to Topher Grace's professional future, anyway, in which, at this point, the sky appears to be the limit. As no less an authority than ``Company'' co-star Quaid, a survivor of both the professional and personal pitfalls of stardom, observes, ``It's good timing for Topher, actually. I think he's really getting ready to take off. He really doesn't need my advice. He's a smart guy who handles himself well.''

And, Quaid might have added, Grace never phones it in.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) He's the boss

`In Good Company' star Topher Grace takes charge of his professional life

(2) To play newly minted ad executive Carter Duryea of ``In Good Company,'' actor Topher Grace was able to draw upon his own father's Manhattan advertising experience.

(3) Things get slightly sticky when Grace dates the daughter (Scarlett Johansson) of the man he both supervises and envies.

(4) When Grace's 26-year-old character finds himself the boss of a 51-year-old advertising veteran, the younger man calls Dennis Quaid's character his wingman.

(5) Grace's first-ever Hollywood audition was for ``That '70s Show.''