He’s being touted in good company

It’s not quite a household name, but it does stand out.

Topher Grace has been flying just slightly under the radar since he was first cast in the Fox sitcom “That ‘70s Show” almost seven years ago. Since then, film work has included a small but significant role in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” as a callow youth who turns Michael Douglas’ character’s daughter (Erika Christensen) on to drugs, and the romantic lead in this fall’s “P.S.” from director Dylan Kidd (“Roger Dodger”), where he played opposite Laura Linney.

Even before taking on his biggest role, starring in the new Universal film “In Good Company,” Grace garnered killer accolades for his work. Colleagues and critics alike have labeled him the new Everyman, calling him at times a young and/or new Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart and the Grants -- Hugh and Cary.

Grace’s looks, which are endearing rather than daunting, only add to the image.

“In Good Company” which director Paul Weitz also wrote, is a story centered in the corporate world. Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) has been a company man for more than 20 years. A sudden takeover gives him a new boss, Carter Duryea (Grace), half his age and with none of his experience. Complicating matters further, Carter falls for Dan’s daughter Alex (Scarlett Johansson).

For the role of the ambitious young executive, Weitz needed someone who could believably fire Dan at any moment. That’s why he chose Grace: “He obviously has a bit of an Everyman quality, but he also has a real edge and a little bit of iciness to him as well.”

Weitz pointed out that even though the Everyman is often thought of as benign and lovable, “people like Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart actually had a real dark streak to a lot of their characters.” He added, “I think Topher’s a terrific mixture of being open and respectful while being acid and cynical, which is the best combination of characteristics.”

How does the young man in question feel about all the comparisons?

“I love it,” Grace said. “All those guys are amazing and huge idols of mine. I don’t know if there’s a point in your career when all of a sudden you start to not want that.” Over a meal at a West Hollywood cafe -- “the food is off the record,” he deadpanned -- Grace talked enthusiastically about his TV work, his films and his good fortune all around.

He clearly wants to work with Weitz again (the feeling is mutual), and he’s happy to invoke an idol’s name in that vein. “I want to be his Jack Lemmon -- I think he’s Billy Wilder right now,” said Grace, recalling “The Apartment,” the great Wilder-Lemmon movie about corporate life (which Grace watched three times before filming began). “You know how people are always trying to hop on the train, and maybe it’s already a couple stops past? To work with Paul, it’s like working with Spielberg when he’d done “Jaws,” but you’re like, ‘I think the kid’s got more in him.’ ”

“In Good Company” balances elements of humor and poignancy, as did Weitz’s previous film “About a Boy” (co-directed by Weitz’s brother Chris, who produced this latest film). Without giving away any plot points, it can be said that things do not turn out as one might expect, especially for a studio film.

Weitz calls the genre “human comedy,” an infinitely better term than “dramedy” and one that brings to mind the Shakespearean-era definition of comedy -- nobody dies.

In the film, as in life, Grace said, “it’s not like one day everything’s happy and the next day everything’s sad -- I think in the exact same minute, both are happening.” He relishes that both this film and “P.S.” defy easy labeling. “To me that’s closest to what life is like when I’m experiencing it.”

His experience of acting life has been remarkably lucky.

Growing up in Darien, Conn., Grace had no interest in a theatrical career -- he wanted to be a professional tennis player. But while at Brewster Academy boarding school in Massachusetts, he tried out for the occasional play because it was a good way to hang out with the senior girls. (“I had one line in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ which was, ‘Just a couple of bushes,’ ” he recalled. “I don’t remember that being a big turning point in the play.”)

As a senior, he was sidelined from tennis by a sprained ankle and tried out for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” He landed the lead, and producers Bonnie and Terry Turner, parents of a classmate, saw him perform.

The Turners thought of him when it came time to cast their pilot for “That ‘70s Show.” Grace was then a freshman at USC. In preparation for the audition, he typed up a resume featuring the “Fiddler” role. He’d also played an elf in a Christmas play for Darien Dinner Theater, the kind of production “where your mom pays for you to go to a class for one week, and all the second-graders go. So that was on there.”

He won the role of Eric Forman, a teenage kid hanging out with his friends and family in suburban 1970s Wisconsin.

The show will end in the spring, and Grace has fewer than a dozen episodes left to shoot.

“It’s the most fun job you could have in the universe,” said Grace, 26, who started work on the show at 19. “We all started when we were teenagers, so it’s like family -- almost deeper, because we went through this weird experience together. Still, every day for the past seven years we’ve just been trying to make each other laugh.”

He’s not looking forward to the ending, even though he knows it’s the right time to go out. “I almost never cry, like ever, in my personal life. Even in “Finding Nemo” I didn’t cry. But I have a feeling in 10 episodes I’m just going to lose it.”

A ‘Traffic’ stop

A fluke may have gotten him his big break, but good judgment has given him his career.

As young and inexperienced as he was, he knew to turn down the slew of teen movie offers that came his way during the show’s summer hiatus. As he explained, “films like ‘Traffic’ are not a lot of fun, they’re a lot of work. And with these teen films, you’re at a dorm basically, all the kids are living in different hotel rooms. It’s cool guys and hot girls, every scene is funny and fun. So I used to have this expression, ‘you can either have a fun summer and a rough winter, or a rough summer and a fun premiere.’ ”

“Traffic” proved a huge turning point for Grace.

“I started to realize that this job is so amazing, and I’m so passionate about it, that I have to find a way to replicate this experience. I remember at the time thinking, ‘This is like losing my virginity to the most beautiful woman I’ll ever be with my entire life,’ and it was heartbreaking. So I started to reprioritize.” (Soderbergh has since used him in cameos in both “Ocean’s 11” and its sequel, playing a hilariously self-absorbed TV star named, what else?, Topher Grace. In “Ocean’s 12,” Grace even throws in a crack about how he “phoned in [his performance in] that Dennis Quaid movie”).

Grace knows how relatively green he still is and likens working on films to tutorials. “Just use the opportunity to shut up and observe. You watch Michael Douglas talking to Steven Soderbergh about a scene, you’re going to get everything you need to know about how to talk to a director,” he said.

The prospect of working closely with Linney on “P.S.” was intimidating -- “you can not get away with bad acting.” Early in the film, their characters have a sex scene that is as intense as it is awkward. In preparing for the scene, “I went to her trailer and kind of was like, ‘The first time since 10th grade I’ve asked a girl this question -- can I touch you here?’ ”

Grace had wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, “but she wound up holding my hand through the scene, I was so nervous.”

Continuing in the tutorial frame of mine, Grace said when it came time to work with Quaid on “Company,” he thought, “I’m just going to be quiet.”

That’s not quite how Quaid remembers it. “He was always asking me questions and making jokes about my age and my ‘storied’ career,” Quaid said with a laugh by phone. “He made a point of saying he wasn’t alive during certain things that I did.”

Jokes aside, Quaid was impressed by Grace’s talent as well as his humility.

“He doesn’t pretend that he knows everything; that’s part of what makes him so good,” he said. Quaid said the timing couldn’t be better for Grace, with the TV show ending as his movie career gets hotter; “I think he’s got a great future, I really do.”

Grace hasn’t planned his next move, though.

“This film has been a huge break for me, so I kind of wanted to wait and see what happened.” And after a year filled with three movies and 25 episodes of television, he could use a rest.

He bought a place in New York City, and his dream is to pick up his dog, pack up his car, and head east the night “That ‘70s Show” wraps.

Coming in for a landing before really taking off.