10 Exact Movie Moments That Killed A Career

8. A Venomous Fall From Grace - Topher Grace

More recently, audiences have been given Tom Hardy’s take on Eddie Brock, aka Venom. The film itself may have split opinion, but the consensus was that Hardy was phenomenal as Brock. Previously, though, Topher Grace played the very same character in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.

At the time, Grace was one of the fastest rising stars in the industry, largely down to his success on That ‘70s Show. But Eddie Brock? Topher was fighting an uphill battle from the moment he signed his Spidey 3 contract.

Comic book fans were accustomed to an Eddie Brock who was a hulking, heavy-lifting reporter who always had a mean steak lurking below the service. While he may be great in certain roles, Topher Grace was just not cut out to match the image these passionate fans had of Brock. And that translated through to the reception towards the threequel, with Venom feeling anything but like the all-knowing, uber-dangerous threat to Spider-Man that fans were accustomed to.

After playing Venom, Grace's career entered a downward spiral that the actor has only recently started to recover from with roles in the likes of BlacKkKlansman and Black Mirror. In those wilderness years, Topher actually kept himself busy by editing his own hugely entertaining versions of the Star Wars and Hobbit movies.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.