The Renaissance Of Topher Grace: Two Movies In Cannes & A Feted Turn As David Duke In BlacKkKlansman – Cannes Studio
Its rare for a Cannes first-timer to come to the festival with more than one project to promote, but thats what Topher Grace has done these past two days, with roles in Spike Lees BlacKkKlansman and David Robert Mitchells Under the Silver Lake, the two American movies with competition berths this year. His turn in the latter is small, but all part of Graces grand plan to turn his attention towards auteur directors, he told Deadline at our Cannes Studio. It began when he signed on to Interstellar with Christopher Nolan, and has continued with collaborations with Drake Doremus, James Vanderbilt and David Michôd.
In BlacKkKlansman, the rewards of that refocus are most evidently displayed: as former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, Grace is both frightening and frighteningly accessible, tapping into the image Duke projected that steered away from Klansman stereotypes, even as he maintained the vitriolic racism and anti-semitism at the groups dark heart. He stars alongside John David Washington, who plays Ron Stallworth, a black Colorado Springs undercover police officer who successfully infiltrated the KKK, and met with David Duke.
The interview below, published in Deadlines Cannes print magazine, took place before the festival. In the video above, after the premiere of BlacKkKlansman, Grace expands on his experience with Spike Lee and the darkness he found for his role.
In the past few years youve worked with David Michôd, James Vanderbilt and Christopher Nolan, and now David Robert Mitchell and Spike Lee. Has it been a conscious effort to work with these kinds of directors?
I think Ive been trying to do stuff that is just really interesting to me, and to work with directors who are my personal favorites. Obviously someone like a Spike Lee is a no-brainer. I felt that way with David Michôd when I saw some of his stuff, so doing War Machine was great. And working on Truth with an amazing director and writer, and then also that cast, was special.
The sitcom [That 70s Show] was great training, to do something in front of a live audience, but also it sets you up financially to put yourself in a place where you just dont have to do something unless you love it. Im tickled that these two things I loved happened to both fall at the same time.
In BlacKkKlansman you play David Duke. Its a risky role to take on. Where did you start?
The role was really risky in the sense that its not even a little close to anyone Ive ever played or ever known. Hes a guy who is full of hate. And worse, hes really intelligent, which is what makes him really evil. You play bad guys, but you never really play truly evil people on screen.
The movie is adapted from book by Ron Stallworth, and the author really lived through this experience; hes played by John David Washington in the film. When I read for Spike, I had to tell him how uncomfortable it made me, to say some of the things this man says. He was wonderful about it, and he was always great about making you feel safe.
When we did the table read, Ron was there, and he was there through filming too, and theres no such thing as having too much information when youre doing a movie like this. To have this guy who went through this come out and spend an hour and a half talking to us about his experience, it informs you more and makes you realize your responsibility. Not to this character, but to the audience, to be honest about it.
Are you able to switch off from a character like this at the end of a day?
I hesitate to say yes, because I hate it when actors admit to being so taken in by their own process; I dont have that deep a process. But I would say this was the first time on a film where, in a specific scene, my character is leading a very specific ritual to a room of 100-200 people, who are following my lead, and I found it hard to deal with it because it was just so much hate. My character was the lightning rod for the hate; he was leading the people into doing it. I went to the monitors and sat down, and Spike came up and said, “Hey man, this is a movie. Were doing this for a reason. Ultimately, what youre feeling as a human being is what this movie is about.” I dont know that there are many directors Id be willing to go to a place like this with, but Spikes the guy.
Describe the process of working with him.
He moves really quickly, and he knows exactly what he wants. When I was cast, that was very fast too. I dont think actors love anything more than a leader that really knows exactly what they want, especially when youre going into such dark subject matter; you dont want to feel that your leader is anything less than 100% sure what theyre saying.
Spike always knows exactly what he wants to say, and we spent a lot of time rehearsing to get that across. We rehearsed at NYU, where he does such great work, and his students would come in to ask him questions while we were rehearsing. I always heard he taught at NYU, but you realize thats why he stays so relevant, because he remains in touch with all these issues.
He really is a true artist, and I feel that way about David Robert Mitchell too. Its right that these guys have their movies in Cannes.
You have a small part in Under the Silver Lake. What appealed about it?
As I said, I dont just want to take a job, I want to go on a journey with a filmmaker, and Spikes movie and Davids movie offered that. It is a very small part in Under the Silver Lake, but as you can tell from It Follows, and from the trailer, David is one of the coolest directors alive right now, so I was happy to be involved with him, whatever the role. It Follows felt like the birth of a new great filmmaker. This film, I think, confirms that.
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