Before Tom Hardy strapped on the symbiote suit and become the anti-hero Venom, Topher Grace took up the mantle in the character’s first-ever big screen adaptation in Spider-Man 3. That turned out to be quite a dud, but Grace still owns the role and he recently passed over the mantle to Tom Hardy in honor of Venom’s upcoming release.
In an interview with Inverse, Grace talked about how it feels to see someone else take up the role of Eddie Brock and revealed he’s actually thrilled about it.
“To me—I truly mean this—I think Tom [Hardy] is the guy to play the role,” says Grace. “I’m thrilled to watch it as a fan. I really mean that. I think he’s just the best dude.”
It’s always a tough proposition for an actor to see some else take up the mantle of such an iconic character, but Grace seems to be taking it in stride, throwing his support behind Tom Hardy and his interpretation of the character.
Topher Grace went on to talk about a very sensitive topic among Spider-Man fans, and that is the quality of Spider-Man 3 and the polarizing take he went with Venom. The movie is seen as the worst movie of the trilogy and why the franchise was rebooted, but he is still proud of the movie though the character is much different from the comic book version.
“I understand Sam’s interpretation, which was to do a dark version of [Tobey Maguire’s] character,” says Grace. “I was thrilled because I was such a fan of the character, but I was aware of how it was different from what I had grown up reading. I thought it was cool, but I’m really excited about [the new Venom]. That’s the character I grew up with.”
We’ll see how Tom Hardy’s turn as Eddie Brock is received when Venom hits theaters October 5.
