Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace deal with sex, lies and secrets in 'Valentine's Day'

Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace in "Valentine's Day"

Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace are friends in real life, but in the romantic comedy "Valentine’s Day," they play Liz and Jason, two co-workers at a Los Angeles publicity firm who have been dating for two weeks when Valentine’s Day arrives. While Jason tries to figure out what to do for Liz on the romantic holiday without appearing like he’s rushing into a serious relationship, Liz tries to hide a secret from Jason: she has another job as an adult entertainer who does phone sex.

When Hathaway and Grace sat down for this interview at the Los Angeles press junket for "Valentine’s Day," they couldn’t help but show the ease and comfort that come with knowing each other for a long time. They talked about playing lovers in "Valentine’s Day," reminisced about hanging out on the set of "That ‘70s Show," revealed how the charming quirks of "Valentine’s Day" director Garry Marshall affected their work on the movie.

What do you personally think about Valentine’s Day?

Hathaway: The fun part of Valentine’s Day — which the movie kind of talks about — it is what you make of it. If you hate it, feel free to hate it. It’s a day of passion, so you can kind of go either way. I just love any excuse to eat chocolate, so that’s kind of my M.O. Also, I like making presents. It’s kind of one of those holidays that invites arts and crafts.

Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway in "Valentine's Day"

Topher, what about you?

Grace: Not so much.

Hathaway: Not arts and crafts?

Grace: First of all, I’m horrible at arts and crafts.

Hathaway: Oh, come on! You don’t want to make a popsicle-stick house?

Grace: You know, I’m horrible at arts and crafts. And I couldn’t be in a demo that further away from Valentine’s Day. I’m about as far out from my own family …

Hathaway: I think you’re lying. I think you’re a secret crocheter. [She laughs.]

Grace: Guilty!

Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace in "Valentine's Day"

Remember in grade school where you had to give out Valentine’s Day gifts to classmates?

Grace: I think that’s where it starts for guys. I think it may be harder holiday for guys … I got comfortable with rejection at a really early age. You have to go, "Will you be my valentine?" That’s a loaded question.

Hathaway: See, you got comfortable with rejection. I got comfortable with just being ignored, so that’s the girls’ side of it …

Grace: My dad said there was this Valentine’s Dance — this was the worst advice I’ve ever gotten, by the way — and he said to me that I should ask this girls to the Valentine’s Dance (who will remain nameless). He said, "You should go ask her." Because there’s something about a father/son thing and [the father encouraging the son] to say, "Be my valentine. Come to the Valentine’s Dance with me." I said, "I don’t know. She’s the most popular girl in school, and I’m like the biggest loser. So it feels unbalanced to me." But I was in seventh grade. I didn’t know.

And he said, "If you’re scared to ask her, then everybody’s scared to ask her. ‘I’m the most popular girl in school. How come no one’s asking me to the Valentine’ Day Dance?’" For some reason, this made sense, although she ended up going with the most popular guy in school. OK, you be me, and I’ll be "who shall remain nameless."

Hathaway: Charlotte. Her name is Charlotte.

Grace: Ask me to the Valentine’s Day Dance.

I would really like it if you could go to the Valentine’s Day Dance with me.

Grace: [He laughs.] Oh, are you serious? That was the response. She laughed for a little while …Yeah, you’ve really got to put yourself out there, and by the time people want you to, you’ve kind of iced over.

Hathaway: Then you moved to Hollywood, and you said, "I’m going to become as famous as I can!"

Grace: That’s actually remarkably en pointe about what happened.

And then came "That ‘70s Show," and the rest is history.

Grace: Yeah, I wish it got easier.

Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Garry Marshall, Anne Hathaway, Taylor Lautner and Topher Grace at the Los Angeles premiere of "Valentine's Day"

What is it about Garry Marshall that makes him the perfect director for "Valentine’s Day"?

Hathaway: Oh, gosh. I think it’s because Garry is so optimistic all the time. And he is someone who, not in a romantic sense all the time, but he really does believe in love. He keeps his family around him. He is someone who genuinely loves people. One of the things you need to know if you’re working on a Garry Marshall movie is you’re working on it with 300 of his friends as well. They come in and have really bright personalities. And it’s a love fest from the first minute.

I was 17 when I made my first movie with him [2001’s "The Princess Diaries"], and I thought, "Oh, great! This is what it means to be an actor!" And you get a little older and you have experiences that are not love fests, and t makes you appreciate it. He’s someone who prioritizes happiness and joy, and that’s unusual and very beautiful. And I’m glad there are movies out there that are kind of like this too to counterbalance all the darkness. It’s important to have both.

Garry Marshall’s direction is hard to understand sometimes. Julia Roberts was joking about ho she had to translate Garry’s direction to other people. Did you have a hard time understanding him sometimes?

Grace: Yeah. I don’t have an impression [imitation] of him.

Hathaway: I remember the first day, because you had worked before I came on, and I came on and you were talking with Garry, and you were like, "OK, so he’s just like that."

Grace: [He laughs.] Oh yeah.

Hathaway: And I was like, "Yeah, you’ve just kind of got to give over." The thing about Garry is that he sometimes misses words. So he’ll come over and give you a note and it’ll say, "So the bed and then you smile and action!" Are you’re like, "What am I supposed to do in there? So translating when you’re with Garry Marshall.

Grace: He uses code words, too, which you translated for me.

Hathaway: He does have code words …

Grace: Like the whole "chuffa chuffa" thing. I didn’t know what he meant by that.

Hathaway: So you walk on, and you’re like, "Chuffa chuffa!"

Grace: "Chuffa chuffa!" He’ll come up to you and he’ll say, "Chuffa chuffa," which means …

Hathaway: Make up something. Say something. And the fun thing is when yyou get to know [Garry Marshall], you start to plan your chuffa, because you just try to get him to break and then you start the scene. So if you don’t know that, you can walk into a scene, and it’s like "A Streetcar Named Desire": [She yells like the famous "Stella" line Marlon Brandon yelled] "Chuffa!"

Topher Grace, Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher and Laura Prepon in "That '70s Show"

Topher, you didn’t have any scenes with your Ashton Kutcher in "Valentine’s Day," hut have you kept in touch with him after "That ‘70s Show" ended?

Grace: Yeah, it’s been so nostalgic. Annie [Hathaway] and I have been friends almost as long as …

Hathaway: Almost as long as you and Ashton.

Grace: It’s funny because I was driving around L.A., and looking at the poster, and I remember you hanging out in my dressing room at "That ‘70s Show," and Ashton being there, and we’re all in a movie in different spaces. I’d see him a lot in the makeup trailer. It was nostalgic. We actually all went to ["That ‘70s Show" co-star] Wilmer Valderrama’s birthday party last night.

Hathaway: How is Wilmer?

Grace: Good.

Hathaway: I remember Ashton being a little bit older than me, and so he was of [drinking] age. And I remember hanging out and seeing him drinking a Heineken and being like, "Oh my God! Wow! He drinks beer!," because I was, like, 16 years old. I just remember thinking he was "Cool man, ‘That ‘70s Show.’"

Grace: That’s as cool as it got for Ashton. Beer drinking.

Hathaway: You and I were like, "Yeah, let’s have some tea."

Anne Hathaway at the Los Angeles premiere of "Valentine's Day"

Anne, was the playing a phone-sex operator in "Valentine’s Day" fun for you? [Says jokingly] If the acting thing doesn’t work out for you …

Hathaway: It’s always funny, the hidden talents you’re not even aware of that movie slet you know that you have. I had so much fun doing that! I’m not going to lie. When I got laryngitis, I was like, [she says in a raspy voice] "I’ve got a sexy phone-sex voice." Np, it was better than that.

Grace: No, that was perfect.

Hathaway: Did that just get you excited? [She says in raspy voice] Go ahead, talk to me.

Grace: Yeah, I love talking to demons. That’s how I get off.

Hathaway: [She laughs.] So that turned out to be so much fun. That was one of the high points of the movie for me, of course, after working with this guy [she points to Grace].

Grace: Listen, I can do zero accents. I can barely do whatever accent I have, but Annie, you’ve always been like this, to be able to access lots of different kinds of accents. It’s good to have a role that you …

Hathaway: Basically be as goofy as you would be.

Grace: Yeah, and you showed that off. When we did it, I was always far away from you. I never heard it.

Hathaway: You never told me that!

Grace: I didn’t know what was going on over there. I just heard a Russian accent. When I saw it [in the movie], I was like, "Oh yeah, that’s really funny. It’s a good dimension for the character."

Hathaway: I’m glad it turned out OK for you.

You two should do another movie together.

Hathaway: [She high-fives Grace and says jokingly] Actually, we’d like to make an announcement …

Grace: Three-picture deal!