The Oakland Post sat down with Topher Grace (“That ’70s Show”) and Demetri Martin (“Important Things with Demetri Martin”) to discuss their recent film, “Take Me Home Tonight.”

The movie hits theaters March 4.

How did you prepare for this role and the time frame and what is your favorite part about the ’80s?

Grace: I’m a producer, so I kind of helped come up with the idea for it, and there’s never been a movie about the ’80s that wasn’t making fun of the ’80s. We wanted to take advantage of that, because it’s another opportunity to do it.  And I really love all these John Hughes films, and I wanted to do one where I got to work with my peer group. One and two: I wanted to go back and time and be in one. I also started looking at movies like “Dazed and Confused.” It was shot in the ’90s about the ’70s; likewise, “American Graffiti,” which was produced by Ron Howard, was made in the ’70s about the ’50s and we thought, “Oh wait, if we did one of those, it would kind of put us, with the time in such, in one of those John Hughes movies.”

A lot of these movies today are all raunchy, or all romantic. We wanted one like those John Hughes movies that has everything and a really young, new cast. So we thought it all kind of worked to be the same thing. And then we made a mixtape of all our favorite ’80s songs. Not making fun of it, like “Rock Me, Amadeus” or the “Who Let the Dogs Out” kind of songs of the ’80s. We wanted to do really great, kickass songs from the ’80s that we thought were really great for the characters. That was the genesis of the idea. And then everything from there was kind of about story and characters.

Martin: Since Topher produced it with a producing partner, those guys kind of knew what they were developing or making choices along the way. For me, I auditioned, so I came in later, I just have a small part. I just wanted to get a chance to be in a movie. Cause if you’re lucky, stand-up (comedy) can cross over into movies, but it doesn’t always work out.

If you weren’t acting or doing stand-up, what would you be doing?

Martin: I would probably ask you if I could borrow twenty bucks.

For me, I am really into learning more about industrial design, the design of objects. I read books about it; it’s really fascinating, it’s just so cool when somebody makes a better doorknob or even these recorders. It’s so interesting how technology changes. You can see the different choices that have been made in the designs, how intuitive they are or how complicated they are, the colors they use and the materials. I think I just like the design of things, I think it’s kind of cool to think about that.

Grace: Fireman. Ha, no, I have no idea. I have thought about it, because I didn’t want to act, I had no intention of acting. A parent of one of the kids in my boarding school saw me in a play, so my first audition was for “That ’70s Show,” which I had never heard of because I wasn’t an actor. So I’ve always thought, what is the parallel universe? Where would I be? This feels like the parallel universe, being in movies.

Martin: It seems to be a lot of the activities you do in the course of a regular day. If left to your own devices, what would you spend your time doing? I like writing jokes and making things, so that’s why if I couldn’t make jokes, it would be something like making other objects.

In the movie, (Topher’s) character rides the ball to impress a girl. Have you ever done anything crazy to impress girl?

Grace: That’s all I’ve done: stupid things around girls.

Martin: I don’t know whom this was to impress, but it was definitely a strange choice. I used to like to ski when I was little, my family would go on ski trips, and I always thought it would be funny to ski in a Gorilla suit—before I was a comedian. It would just be so funny to be on a mountain and to see a gorilla coming down. “What the hell was that? It looked like a gorilla skiing.”

So by the time I was in college, I got a gorilla suit one year for Christmas, I bought a gorilla suit, and that was my ski suit, so I used to ski with the full body and the head, so no peripheral vision. I would never do this now. I remember being in the lift line and people would be like, ‘Hey, a gorilla! Want a banana?’ That’s the time when I thought, “People are such assholes. Like, no concept of, ‘nobody made you wear this gorilla suit, asshole. You need attention.'”

But one time I was skiing and I was about to do moguls and I lost control, especially since I had no peripheral vision. You know with moguls, if you mess up one, you get it together, because that’s it: you’re in trouble after that. So I go over the one, and I go over a second one in a row, and I’m like, “I’m (in trouble).” I lose control and I fell forward, so the ski pole hit the mogul and it hit me, and kind of punched my stomach and it knocked the wind out of me. And as I did that, I fell down and the gorilla head fell off. And I was lying in the snow, just (taking deep breaths) since I knocked the wind out of myself. So I’m just gasping for air, and it was crowded. The thing about the gorilla suit is, you fall in the snow, its not designed for that; it gets snow dingle-berries all over the synthetic hairs. So you can tell that the guy in the gorilla suit fell because his whole suit is covered in snow.

Grace: “Great, now my gorilla suit is ruined!”

Martin: I went into the lodge for lunch and I have the head off, and I was in line for food and this guy walks by and he’s like, “The gorilla lives,” because my wipe out was so bad.  I don’t think that impressed any girls. But it could have if it went well. They could have been like, “Oh, you’re the gorilla. Awesome skiing man, I saw you in the moguls.”

Grace: I don’t think a gorilla suit has ever impressed any girls. I wore a gorilla suit when doing charity work.

Martin: I’d love for that to be true.

Grace: I’ve done tons of stuff, but just stupid stuff, not like anything that would be funny. Just really trying too hard. The thing about [my character is] he lies to get the girl, but every time he gets rewarded, it’s because he’s becoming more honest. It was a really tough job for Teresa Palmer, who played Tori, because she’s very distant from the audience and from the main character for the first half of the movie. She’s kind of this untouchable girl. Some of the trailers and the reviewers were like, “Oh, what do you know, playing another a hot girl.” And that really is what she in the beginning. (The main character) is filling in all the lines himself. Starting when they go to the second party, he immediately learns all these different things about her, how she’s kind of vulnerable; it’s a tough job for a young actress to figure out. The audience almost likes her more at a certain point than Matt.

The film was shot a while ago. Do you feel like the film is more relevant today than when you shot it?

Grace: There’s some statistic that something like 70 percent of students who graduate college have to go home and live with their folks, and they’re bright kids. And so what we really wanted to do was have a modern day protagonist: someone dealing with today’s issues but in this other time. Matt is a beautiful swan today, and a real ugly duckling then.

Martin: It’s nice doing a period piece because it can come out a little later. It’s not supposed to take place this year, so if it got delayed at all, it’s still about the ’80s.

This movie was inspired by your own experiences. Were you really like that in high school?

Grace: You know, you’d never believe it, but yes. But it is not a documentary. But I did work at Suncoast video for about two years, and I did have a lot of trouble with girls. I had a lot of crushes on girls who were out of my league. But other than that, it’s not really autobiographical. My best friend growing up, who I developed this movie with, is a little bit what Barry (the main character’s best friend) is based on: a little crazier than me. But other than that, we really wanted to make it the conventions of ’80s films: stealing a car, chasing a girl; but then we wanted to break those conventions halfway through the film. In every ’80s film, they have a plutonic best friend and they end up, “I never realized the whole time it was you.” But we had it his twin, so that can’t happen. He has a plutonic best friend but it’s his twin.

What made you, Topher, want to go into producing?

Grace: Something I wanted to do on this was I wanted to produce it; I had the idea all the way through, and a bunch of it was I wanted to work with my peers. I love working with big stars to learn a lot from them, but I also want to work with people like Demetri, people who are my age and blow my mind. I really think there are five 20 million dollar actors in the movie in the year 2018. And people will look back and say, “Oh look, they were all in that movie!” The same way as in “Dazed and Confused,” you have Matt McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Renee Zellweger, Wiley Wiggins… There was a time then those guys were all together. I wanted to be in one of those times.

What do you want college students now to take away from the movie?

Martin: What I like about the movie is that doesn’t matter what time period the movie actually takes place in, but its more what it says about our experiences with people; whatever phase of life you’re in. I like this one because it looks at that time when you’ve left that kind of structure world that’s set up for you. As much as school can be annoying, there are markers. “Like, OK, if you get this many questions right, you get an ‘A,’ and that means you’re good.” So someone is making it easy for you to say, “Hey, you’re good.” But then you leave school at some point, of course, and that’s not really there anymore. So it really is up to you; you have to step up and get on it with and kind of decide, “What is my point? What am I going to do?” And maybe what college students can take away is ‘What do I actually enjoy doing, and what do I want to take a chance at?’ Because I think certain things are really worth taking risks for, and other things maybe they’re not really you and they’re not so much worth it.

His character is a smart guy. That’s on purpose, they made a character who went to MIT; very capable, he’s qualified to do a lot of things. The problem is he’s afraid to make a mistake, he’s afraid to make the wrong move.  It’s a weird cage you can end up in if you’re too perfect. You got the right SAT scores, you went to the right school, you’re getting the right grades, you picked the right major. So you’re winning on life on paper, but then the paper runs out so what are you left with? He’s got to roll with it; he’s got to ride the ball.

Grace: It’s more about what you do. Who cares about what trophies you have or grades or titles; what’s your substance? I don’t know how much you can get from that, leaving the movie and saying, “It’s about the substance of life!” instead of just partying your ass off in the ’80s.

Have you played the video games you voice acted in?

Grace: There is this false thing that I’m in “Call of Duty.” I was in the Spiderman 3 video game. Certain gamers are like, “Way to go, dude. Congrats.” I actually think they may have said I was because it’s literally everywhere. And I heard that game is awesome, but I’m not really a gamer.