What's Eating Devon Sawa?

We get a taste of the young Canadian upstart fresh from his appearance in Wild America.

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DEVON SAWA IS KNOWN TO EVERY TEEN GIRL in America with a movie-star Jones. He has enjoyed (or endured) years of adulation for his turns in movies like Little Giants, Casper and Now and Then--slumber-party staples, all--and now, at age 18, he's at the point where other things should start happening for him if he's going to make the transition into adult actorhood.

So along with getting mauled in malls and put-upon by paparazzi, Sawa now has to deal with how casting directors perceive him. "In a way, it's painful," Sawa sighs. "One casting director told me, 'You're the next Leonardo DiCaprio,' and when I heard that, I said, 'Let's talk about how I don't want anything to do with being like Leo.' He's an amazing actor, but the films we're pushing to do are different. I'm going my own way. In a big way."

In all fairness to the casting directors, Sawa used to share the same management as DiCaprio and he does look somewhat like the recent Romeo. Hopefully, this summer will set him apart. In Wild America, a family film that may have crossover appeal, Sawa stars with Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Canadian up-and-comer Scott Bairstow as the real-life, daredevil Stouffer brothers, who, in the '60s, braved the forces of nature to trek cross-country documenting America's vanishing wildlife.

Despite a scene in the movie where he nearly becomes snack food for an alligator, Sawa says of the more formidable creatures he shared scenes with, "They were on a leash or behind a fence." Having lived up till now with his family in Vancouver, Sawa is scouting for his first bachelor digs in L.A. He confides he's intimidated by the Hollywood social scene.

"Hanging with the brat pack's not for me--my friends are in Vancouver. And the few premieres I've been to here had a lot of brownnosing guys in suits trying to find the next job. But if Madonna's looking for someone to go to her parties," he concedes, "then I'll reconsider."

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Vicki Jo Radovsky