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After a long TV career, That ‘70s Show alum Topher Grace jumps ahead a decade to the ‘80s-set comedy Take Me Home Tonight, picking up his first writing and executive producing credit along the way. Opening in theaters nationwide on March 4th, Take Me Home Tonight tells the story of aimless MIT-grad Matt Franklin (Grace), who gets the chance to win over his high school dream girl Tori (Teresa Palmer), at a perennial alcohol-fueled Labor Day party. Assisted by his twin sister (Anna Faris) and best friend (Dan Fogler), Matt goes on to attempt to fulfill his teenage dream and straighten out his adult life over the course of one wild day.

Grace and Australian newcomer Palmer (who is currently heating up movie screens with I Am Number Four) talked face-to-face with Box Office Prophets about their love for the ‘80s, filming throughout the night, Suncoast Video, and just why Topher Grace thinks why Space Jam is one of the “worst films ever made.”

Topher, being credited for the story, how did you come up with this whole idea? Was it a one-night experience thing you had like in the movie?

Topher Grace: No, unfortunately I never had a night like that. I do remember in my early twenties that feeling of “what if tonight was that night that changes everything?” At the time, I had thought that I would really want to work with my peer group. I love being in movies with big movie stars and really learned a lot from them. I did a Dennis Quaid-movie and I just did a Richard Gere-movie; me and these guys for half a year hanging out together was fantastic; you learn a lot. I wished they still made those John Hughes movies. You are blooming with your peers and I thought how much fun that would be. [I wanted] to work with Cameron Crowe and be John Cusack. Now all they make are either raunchy movies or romance. Those John Hughes movies were all in one and starred ensembles of young people. So that was my idea and then my producing partner had the idea that Dazed and Confused was set in the ‘70s and made in the ‘90s, and American Graffiti was set in the ‘50s but made in the ‘70s, so if we did that math now, it would bring us back to that John Hughes time. Really, this is the first movie like this that’s not a spoof of the ‘80s.

Teresa Palmer: We wanted it to feel like it was a movie that was really made in the ‘80s. Like we put it away in a vault and pulled it out, brushed the dust off, and just pressed play. It feels vintage. I think we managed to capture that.

How did you go about making the film without spoofing the ‘80s?

TG: The first thing we did was make a mix, before we even hired writers. We cut out all the “Rock Me Amadeus,” typical ‘80s songs and [instead went with] songs that sound like today’s hits, like “Bette Davis Eyes” and “Straight Out of Compton.” Then we went to the script. Any lines where the character goes, “This cell phone is so tiny,” (pretending to hold a giant phone) and winks to the audience or “They’ll have hover cars by the year 2000,” were stripped. We focused more on character work and how they come together. It’s really about timeless issues.

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