Latest news with #TopherGrace
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why The Waterfront's Grady Is So Familiar to Marvel Fans
Fans remember that Grady's actor from The Waterfront series has previously played the role of a beloved Marvel character. Introduced as a notorious drug lord, the series' ending saw an ultimate confrontation between him and the Buckleys and Parkers. The families try to destroy the Grady's empire, leaving Grady devastated and angry. After an epic showdown, Grady and his men face a tragic fate. Throughout the show, Grady has been an interesting villain, catching the attention of many and making them recall his old Marvel days. But which movie was he in? Here are the details. Grady is played by Topher Grace in The Waterfront. Grady, as a villain, has a unique personality that boasts deranged and narcissistic traits. Recently, in an interview with ScreenRant, creator Kevin Williamson shared details on why he thought Grace would be an apt choice for the role. He said, 'I wanted someone who was so darn likable. Someone we knew to be so darn cute and funny and winning.' Further, he also expressed appreciation for Grace's 'duality.' Additionally, he discusses how Grady stands out and what makes his character so terrifying. He added, 'It's funny because you have someone like Harlan who can be outwardly scary, and then you have Topher Grace that comes in and he's kind of silly, but he's a different type of terrifying to me. He really knocked my socks off.' Marvel fans know Grace from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 (2007). There, he played the beloved anti-hero, Eddie Brock/Venom. In 1998, he made his professional TV debut in the main role of Eric Forman in That '70s Show, which earned him massive attention and recognition. Aside from TV, he also has popular movie credits under his belt, such as Interstellar, BlacKkKlansman, Heretic, Playing It Cool, and others. He is also renowned for his antagonistic role as Edwin in Predators (2010). In recent years, he has been a vital part of shows like Home Economics and The Hot Zone.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Waterfront' Review: Topher Grace Gives Kevin Williamson's Unconvincing Netflix Crime Soap a Much-Needed Boost
Watching Netflix's The Waterfront. A journey. Me, after the pilot for The Waterfront: This isn't necessarily a good show, but it's a serviceable attempt to reproduce the sort of accessible, young-skewing soap opera The CW and The WB used to make, with a solidly above-average cast. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jennifer Love Hewitt Calls Out Killer With Iconic Line in New 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Sequel Trailer Topher Grace (Yes, Topher Grace) Is an Opium Kingpin in Netflix's 'The Waterfront' Trailer 'Flight Risk' Review: Mark Wahlberg in a Mel Gibson-Directed Actioner That's Almost Fast Enough to Make You Forgive Its Flaws Me, after episodes two and three of The Waterfront: Having a solidly above-average cast and occasional bursts of cartoonish violence isn't enough if the characters are thin and the drama and settings are wholly artificial. Me, during the fourth episode of The Waterfront: Yeah, there are no real 'ideas' at play here, nothing fresh to transcend the banal bits, and it may be just about time to quit … HOLY COW, TOPHER GRACE AS A SOCIOPATHIC DRUG KINGPIN. The arrival of Topher Grace as he's never quite been utilized before doesn't quite save Kevin Williamson's latest attempt to launder semi-autobiographical details through slick genre contrivance. But the That '70s Show veteran periodically makes The Waterfront feel like a completely different show — one that's wilder, sillier and generally less predictable. I'm guessing there will be some viewers who are fully engaged in this somewhat grown-up version of Outer Banks — Older Banks — and find Grace's arrival to be a needless distraction. For me, he was a welcome and insufficient distraction, exactly enough to keep me engaged in the season's second half — usually only for three to five minutes at a time — but not nearly enough to make me enjoy it. The Waterfront begins with an attack at sea, as two sailors — Kevin Williamson completists will be very amused by the cameos — have their vessel and their mid-sized drug shipment stolen (and their lives taken, though they're barely characters and nobody cares). The boat, it turns out, is owned by Cane Buckley (Jake Weary, auditioning for the coveted role of Alt-Joshua Jackson), operator of a struggling local fishery and scion to one of the key families in Havenport, North Carolina, a waterfront community that doesn't exist in the real world and barely exists in this fictional one. The Buckley family used to straddle the line between legitimate and criminal, then they went straight. But now, as they're on the verge of losing everything, it may be time to return to criminality. Harlan (Holt McCallany, reliably gruff), Cane's father, has had recent heart issues and he's drinking and philandering his life away. Belle (Maria Bello, reliably steely), Cane's mother, is running the family restaurant and doing her best to ignore Harlan's drinking and philandering. Bree (Melissa Benoist, sincere but unconvincing) is a recovering addict whose rock bottom involved an act of arson that makes it illegal for her to see her teenage son (Brady Hepner's Diller) without supervision. Cane has a former beauty queen wife (Danielle Campbell, feisty but underused) and a young daughter who's mostly off-screen — a good thing since the season-opening tragedy is just the first step in an escalating drug war that comes to involve the local sheriff (Michael Gaston's Clyde), a hunky DEA agent (Gerardo Celasco's Marcus) and, eventually, Topher Grace's Grady. Especially in the early episodes directed by frequent Williamson collaborator Marcos Siega, everything in The Waterfront looks polished and pretty, to the point that nothing looks real. It's a commercial for filming in North Carolina — from Cane and Peyton's absurdly nice coastal home (which is only actually opulent in the pilot and then becomes generic and barely utilized) to the fishery (which has been production-designed to suggest that, despite allegedly serving as the town's economic backbone, nobody works there and certainly nobody guts fish there). There's a Main Street that looks like it was designed by the Chamber of Commerce to resemble a small-town Main Street in a Netflix TV show. Mostly, though, it's so wholly a product of Kevin Williamson's imagination and so wholly divorced from actual, real-world grounding that I'm surprised he didn't name the town after himself. In general, despite drawing specific details from Williamson's past, The Waterfront doesn't come across as a personal story. The creator has talked about his fisherman father and his North Carolina upbringing, but what's actually been produced here resembles only a standard-issue combination of boring familial crime saga and unconvincing affluence porn, made suitable for streaming — and therefore distinct from Williamson's broadcast approach — by slightly bloated episodic running times, a squishy fascination with momentary gore, and one shot featuring what might be visible pubic hair (not a sex scene, mind you, because the chemistry-free sex in The Waterfront is wholly CW-friendly). The characters in The Waterfront might be older than the characters in Outer Banks, but the show is comparably nuanced and less fun. One of my favorite tests for any ensemble show is, 'Do the characters give the impression that they have lives that continue even when the cameras aren't running, or are they robots that get powered down whenever we go to a different storyline?' I've rarely watched a show in which so many of the main characters absolutely don't exist when they aren't part of the story. There's dreamy bartender Shawn (Rafael L. Silva), who briefly seems like he might become the show's actual hero, except that he has no personality and his motivation is grounded only in plot and not emotion. There's Cane's ex-girlfriend Jenna (Humberly Gonzalez), who arrives in town as a caretaker for her predominantly off-screen ailing father, and makes several references to a journalism career that are amusing in their pointlessness. There's Dave Annable as a land developer periodically working on a deal with Belle, and Bree's son Diller who mentions in one line of dialogue that school isn't in session. Even actors as sturdy as McCallany and Bello fall victim to this infection, so thoroughly that I kept finding myself haunted by two early scenes in which Harlan goes from scruffy to clean-shaven — a fairly normal occurrence in the real world, but anomalous evidence of off-camera behavior here. This is why Topher Grace's arrival in the series is such a bizarre pleasure. It isn't that Grady is some wild deviation from the sunny-but-sarcastic archetype that Grace reliably plays (even when cast as David Duke), but the context in which his trademark persona is utilized here is something entirely new. Grady is a weirdo with daddy issues and no impulse control, and it doesn't make complete sense how he earned the loyalty of his lieutenants or what his business plan is. And because it doesn't completely make sense, I kept wanting to spend more and more time watching him (both Grady and Grace, whose mixture of cheery and maniacal is perfect) and his operation, since there's nothing happening with the Buckleys that I haven't seen in episodes of Yellowstone, Ozark or even One Tree Hill. Grady has a scene in the sixth episode in which he uses an unexpected torture device in a sadistic and hilariously photographed manner. I watch entirely too many scenes of televisual torture and I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of my favorite televisual torture scenes, bordering on unique. But if nothing else in The Waterfront even comes close to original and my reasons for recommending the show would be limited to one supporting performance and one two-minute torture scene, that isn't much of a recommendation, is it? Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Waterfront Boss Kevin Williamson Talks Netflix Drama's Fatal Finale, Looks Ahead to Possible Season 2
After eight episodes of deception, betrayal and gunshots to the face, the Buckley family's drama reaches an explosive conclusion in the finale of Netflix's The Waterfront, leaving fans to wonder… what's next? More from TVLine Sirens Dominates Nielsen Streaming Top 10 Chart in Debut Outer Banks Promotes Two Ahead of Final Season - See the Remaining Pogues (Sniff!) in First Season 5 Photos Dave Nemetz Reviews The Waterfront: Netflix's Soggy Soap Drowns in Dumb Clichés - Now, YOU Grade It! One thing's for sure, after getting killed by Cane during the family's mission to rescue Bree, we've definitely seen the last of Topher Grace as unhinged heroin smuggler Grady. 'We wrote that character with Topher in mind,' series creator Kevin Williamson tells TVLine. We wanted someone who was lovable and fun and funny … and to turn them into a psychopath. It's a lot of fun. Give a funny man a gun and see what he does with it.' But just because one Buckley nemesis has been taken out, that doesn't mean the family is out of the woods. Given their laundry list of questionable actions, there's no shortage of ne'er do wells looking to work with (or against) the Buckleys in future seasons. And from what we see in the finale, there's also plenty of trouble brewing within the family itself. Below, Kevin Williamson addresses some of those lingering finale developments, teasing how they might affect a second season of The Waterfront. Grade the Netflix series below, then read on for what the future could hold for the Buckley family. After killing Grady on the boat (two shots to the face oughta do it!), Cane has a brief-but-crucial moment with Harlan at the hospital. 'Buckley Seafood was a family business — me and my father, side by side,' Harlan tells Cane. 'That's how I've always known it. That's why I wanted you to stay. I didn't want to be alone.' Cane doesn't say anything back, but his silent nod and teary eyes speak volumes. 'I think they they peeled a few layers of the onion,' Williamson says. 'I don't think they've gotten to the core answer of who they are to each other as father and son, but I do think Cane got an answer that he wanted. He has always wondered why his father treated him a certain way and why that dynamic was what it was. Cane is wrestling with the roads not taken. He wanted one thing out of life and ended up with something else, and he's got to get right with it. Part of that means fixing things with his father, so I think he has mended a lot with his dad. There's a lot more understanding, but I don't know if they've reconciled completely. There's going to be more stumbling for them to do as father and son before they fully repair that relationship.' The finale is especially harrowing for Bree, who wakes up on Grady's boat after being kidnapped, only to discover that her son Diller has stowed away to rescue her. Grady ends up shooting Bree in the leg and pushing her overboard, but thanks to Diller's quick-thinking, she remains afloat on a life raft. After tying her leg with a belt to stop the bleeding, Bree hallucinates a conversation with her younger self about witnessing her grandfather's murder. 'You were just a girl, you couldn't have done anything,' she says. 'I've got you.' With her last ounce of strength, Bree sends up a flare for help, and the finale ends with her recovering in the hospital. It's an important breakthrough, especially when she refuses heavy pain medication to avoid risking her sobriety, but Bree's life is far from fixed. 'We've just sort of tapped into the surface of her trauma from her past and how that could heal her,' Williamson says. 'But will it? We're a puzzle, as human beings, and I think she still has some missing pieces.' One of the finale's biggest question marks is where things stand between Cane and Peyton, following his brief affair with Jenna. When he tells his wife that it's over, and that he wants them to be good again, she seems strangely unfazed. 'You and me, we're fine, understand?' she says as she kisses him and beings to prepare his dinner. 'I'm gonna see to it.' She says a lot without actually saying much at all, so let's go to Williamson for some much-needed intel: 'I think Peyton knows what she wants, and she's going to get it,' Williamson says. 'Early on, she makes this big statement about how she's never going to be like Belle, but I think she might be wrong about that. The journey for her is going to be, well, how does she fix things? How is she going to make her husband love her? I think it's going to be a great journey for her. It's going to be very surprising, and she's going to take a few left turns.' Following Wes' botched land deal with the Buckleys, the finale ends with Emmett handing Wes over to Belle on a silver platter. More specifically, we see Wes being tied to a chair and tortured, as Emmett reintroduces Belle — this time as Wes' new boss. 'In the first season, Harlan is the patriarch of the family, and Belle has always taken her place, puppeting him and controlling what happens to the Buckley family behind the scenes,' Williamson explains. 'All of her little shenanigans have been done behind Harlan, and in the shadows of Harlan, and now she's ready to shove him out of the way, stand front and center, and really take the reins.' Best of TVLine Mrs. Maisel Flash-Forward List: All of Season 5's Futuristic Easter Eggs Yellowjackets Recap: The Morning After Yellowjackets Recap: The First Supper
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vince Vaughn: ‘Nonnas' Is an 'Outlaw Movie' Amid Changing Industry as Netflix Film Extends Hot Streak
Business is booming for Nonnas, as the Vince Vaughn-led Netflix movie continues to connect with audiences. Based on a true story, director Stephen Chbosky's feature centers on Staten Island restaurateur Joe Scaravella (Vaughn), who is grieving the loss of his mom when he sets out to open an eatery with actual Italian grandmothers working in the kitchen. Co-starring Susan Sarandon, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Brenda Vaccaro, the title topped Netflix's English-language film charts for its first two weekends, collecting 15.3 million views in its initial three days and a total of 33.3 million in 10 days, according to the streamer's internal rankings. More from The Hollywood Reporter Netflix Nabs Robert Langdon Series From Carlton Cuse, Author Dan Brown Titan Submersible Implosion Examined in Trailer for Netflix Doc 'The OceanGate Disaster' Topher Grace (Yes, Topher Grace) Is an Opium Kingpin in Netflix's 'The Waterfront' Trailer During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter to celebrate the film's popularity, Vaughn discusses how the movie's specificity makes it more accessible, potential sequel conversations and why Hollywood has hit 'an all-time peak of overthinking.' Congratulations on the film's success. What does this tell you about what audiences look for in a movie? These actresses are tremendous, and [it's] like what the real Joe did by taking these women who are phenomenal at their craft. In that case, it was cooking and giving them an outlet to be able to do that and celebrate something that they're terrific at. Stephen, in this movie, really dug that with a lot of these actresses [who] have always been terrific. So the movie, in a way, is an extension and does a similar thing that the actual restaurant Enoteca Maria did. There are always conversations in Hollywood about whether movies should be led by 'women of a certain age.' Do higher-ups have concerns when films like yours are getting made? [The movie is] dealing with a stage of life where Joe loses his mom, and now he's being forced into a new phase of being without a family and stepping into a parent or leadership role, even with these nonnas of having a vision. That's something that all human beings go through. We've exhausted ourselves with these [focus] groups and IPs. It's almost like what happened to the car industry, where everything is so quarterly and broken down and just following these ideas. It feels like we've hit an all-time peak of overthinking and using rules to the point where you step back and see something like this. Everyone has a mom — whatever that dynamic is like — or a grandparent, and [then there's] eating. So there are certain things that are just the human experience that are universal. You make me laugh when you say that because I just started to think, 'Is there going to be a flood of Mother's Day movies?' I don't know. I just feel like it's not that hard. People are really nervous. I always hear stuff like, 'People have a TV,' but horror movies continue to open [at the box office]. The people who go to horror movies don't have a television? Or is it something that's a little more dangerous, and there's an audience that wants that community experience. And if that's true, potentially it wouldn't just be horror or action that people would want that community experience for. It's always nice when you're in something that's working, and what's interesting about Nonnas is, it's really a movie that you could watch with all ages. It's definitely something that's feel-good, and the fact that that's not the norm of a movie to be made, but that's this outlaw movie, is interesting in this moment in time. It is a movie that you could share multi-generationally. Not unlike the film industry, the restaurant industry is facing a tough moment, and mom-and-pop eateries like Joe's appear to be struggling more than ever. Did this film give you insight into that world? The fun of cooking and of making films is that you're doing a creative process that you want to share. Part of the thing that works here is that you're dealing with people really doing their best to cope with these stages of life. The more things are specific, the more they're universal. This happens to be Staten Island and Italian, but that actually makes it more universal to the human experience. In the town that we're in now, sometimes the idea is, 'How do you expand it?' [Kurt] Vonnegut has that great quote that, if you open the window and try to please everyone, you'll catch pneumonia. It's just a reminder that, whether it's Boyz n the Hood or Ordinary People — both really great stories about the human experience — the more it is attempting to reflect of something in an authentic way, I always feel it's more universal, especially in this visual media. Is it now impossible to get a table at Joe's restaurant, given the success of the movie? He had like 350 messages and couldn't return them all. He's a fascinating guy. To go back to your early point about these mom-and-pop restaurants, he really was focused on creating this experience and giving an opportunity for these nonnas to be able to cook. I find it somewhat refreshing that he's less driven by, 'How do I monetize it?' We did make the movie independently, but we were really grateful when Netflix came in and recognized that this is a story that people could connect to. The film's actresses have joked that you were the movie's token male. What was the energy like with all of you? We joked around a lot. Ultimately, the story is Joe's, in that he has this dream to create this opportunity. I really love all of them. I was raised with my grandmother in the house and really enjoyed talking to her. There's so much to take from people who have experience and are also wise and talented, and all of these actresses are definitely that. I really took advantage of just hearing them talk and their thoughts on life, relationships, acting, how they approach scenes, what was it like to make this movie or that movie. Has there been any talk of a sequel? Yeah, Nonnas 2: This Time It's Personal is the working title. (Laughs.) There has been some. There's always that with movies. If there's a story that's great and its own story to be told, then that could be a lot of fun. Speaking of sequels, is there any progress you can share about ? There's always talk of these. Dodgeball, actually, there's an idea that's pretty good, but nothing for sure. I'm going to start the second season of Bad Monkey, which is great, and then I have another thing I'm going to do, but I would definitely … It's always about if the story's right, if the extension is something that makes sense. There are ideas that are good with some of these, but you never know what transpires and if it makes sense for everybody. But I'm definitely open to it. I love a lot of those movies and definitely open if something comes to pass. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Titan Submersible Implosion Examined in Trailer for Netflix Doc ‘The OceanGate Disaster'
The Titan submersible's doomed voyage is the focus of the trailer for the Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster. Director Mark Monroe's feature is set to premiere at the Tribeca Festival on June 6 before it begins streaming June 11. The film hails from the Story Syndicate team that is also behind such previous projects as Take Care of Maya, Gone Girls and Britney v Spears. More from The Hollywood Reporter Topher Grace (Yes, Topher Grace) Is an Opium Kingpin in Netflix's 'The Waterfront' Trailer Thomas Haden Church Is Here to Help the Shop - and Will's Erections - in 'Tires' Season 2 Trailer (Exclusive) 'Sirens' Review: Meghann Fahy, Milly Alcock and Julianne Moore Star in Netflix's Erratic Slice of Affluence Porn Titan: The OceanGate Disaster examines the mindset of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and his determination to become a leader in oceanic exploration. Through whistleblower testimony, audio recordings and footage from the company's beginnings, the film offers fresh perspective on the implosion of the Titan submersible that commanded the world's attention in June 2023. Rush was among the five people who died aboard the vessel while it was off the coast of Canada during a voyage to the Titanic wreckage. 'There was no way of knowing when Titan was going to fail,' one individual says in the trailer. 'But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail.' Another participant in the project says in the footage, 'I thought Stockton was a borderline psychopath. How do you manage a person like that who owns the company?' Producers for Titan: The OceanGate Disaster include Monroe, Lily Garrison and Jon Bardin. Liz Garbus, Dan Cogan, Kate Barry, Mala Chapple, Tommy Coriale, Jude Gerard Prest, Hannah Olson and Amy Herdy serve as executive producers. Monroe is a filmmaker who won a WGA Award for his writing work on the Ron Howard-directed documentary feature Jim Henson: Idea Man. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV
