The Only Devon Sawa Interview You Will Ever Need

Where did you go during that time?
I went to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, for months at a time. I started muay thai in Thailand. I fixed up an old heritage building in Vancouver — I bought a heritage building that was kind of run down and went from apartment to apartment…

Are you a house-flipper?
No! That was the first and last time I’ll ever do that. It was an experience, but it was a great experience. I wouldn’t do it for a living, it’s definitely hard work. But I learned so much. It’s kind of a life experience.

When you took this break, not knowing if you’d return to acting, what did you think you might do instead?
I thought I was going to do something in the real estate business, maybe this flipping…

And what was it that brought you back to acting?
An accident. Acting wasn’t even on my radar, but I got a script through the regular mail for Max Payne. Mark Wahlberg was already in it, and this script arrived in my mailbox with a cover sheet. It was from an agent who obviously didn’t get the memo, but there were audition sides and the script. Ludacris’s role — that’s the part I auditioned for. But anyway, my audition tape made it to my new manager’s office somehow and they were like, "Hey, come down and meet with us!" I came down and met with them, but it was a very slow process. I got a furnished apartment in Marina del Rey for a month, and then met with some people and went back home. I eventually moved by that little yellow building by the Santa Monica Pier, and I lived there for a year. Anyway, it didn’t work out, I didn’t get the part, but I got a new manager, and the rest is history.

If you had any of it to do over again, would you do anything differently?
I don’t think I would do it over again. I like where I am now. I think taking the break… I didn’t even know whether I was coming back after the break, and I think it was the best thing for me. I stepped back a little bit and I’m kind of trying to get back to the same place, but I’m happier now. I’m good where I am right now, and I’m in no rush this time. If I don’t work for a couple of months, then so be it. I don’t need to jump on a horror movie about aliens in space fighting zombies or something like that.

Unless it’s the right one…
[Laughs] That actually sounds not bad!

Now that you’re back in the game, do you have a set path that you want to follow?
I always said I was going to be more selective, pick and choose. It took a lot of time for them to convince me to open my mind to TV, because I was always so against it.

As a child of the '90s, I love that the '90s are the new '80s, but it still freaks me out that the '90s are now retro.
Yeah. When I hear people go, "We’re having a '90s party!" I’m like, am I still doing '90s?

Molly Ringwald recently talked about going to an '80s party herself, not really needing a costume.
Wow. I guess if you’re having an '80s party and Molly Ringwald shows up, you have the '80s party. [Pauses] God, I hope I don’t make a '90s party.

But that would be awesome!
That’s true.

Speaking of the '90s, let’s talk about my early favorite films of yours: Casper, Now & Then, and Little Giants. Two in a row with Christina Ricci! What do you remember of those years?
Me and Christina Ricci hung out a lot on Now & Then. It was my first time in Savannah, Georgia, which was cool — a Canadian kid being in the South for the first time. The reason Casper was so cool was because they did this whole nationwide search for Casper — tapes were coming in from everywhere. I sent my tape down and a week later my agent calls and says, "They want you to go down and meet Spielberg. Tomorrow." My parents were out of town on vacation somewhere, so me and my little old grandmother flew down to Los Angeles, and we’re on the set of Universal Studios, there’s this man sitting on the stairs: "Hi, I’m Steven Spielberg." My grandmother could care less! It was wild. After we did the meeting we snuck into the park and rode the rides. I was 13.

What was Spielberg like, in your 13-year-old eyes?
He was great. I did Little Giants back-to-back with that and they were both his movies. He came and worked the camera a lot on Little Giants. Just down to earth and really cool. But, you know – everyone’s staring at the guy. He’s Steven Spielberg! This is the time of Jaws and E.T. and Back to the Future.

So, Little Giants: I was a tomboy, and I was obsessed with it. I always wanted to throw a roll of toilet paper in a perfect spiral…
Down an aisle? You should do it! Just bring your cart in, wheel it down.

When crazy people like me come up to you with all these nostalgic memories of your movies tied to our own childhoods, is it strange or are you totally cool with it?
Yeah — I don’t know why, but I really am. I’m proud of my resume. I’m proud that I was able to make different jumps at different points. And it’s always a different crowd for different movies. There’s the typical Idle Hands pot smoker; I don’t know how many times someone’s said, "Hey, man, you wanna smoke a joint?" I get a lot of different people who loved the "Stan" video. That was one of the highlights of my career, that video. Working with Dr. Dre who directed it — that was the same feeling as Spielberg but in a different way, these guys are ahead of the game at what they do and they’re so smart and they get it.

Have you ever performed “Stan” at karaoke? Because it exists. Karaoke joints have it.
They do? I remember doing that video, and they told me when I got on set that I was going to lip-synch it. The first take, Dre came in and, no joke — his first direction was, ‘That was good! This time, I want you to try it with a little rhythm…’ [Laughs] I was like, that’s the first direction? That’s how this video’s going to go?

So, thanks to your Tweets we know you share your life with your dog and have a "smoking" habit. What’s life like for you now?
Mellow and chill. I came back and I moved to Marina del Rey, then I moved to the beach, moved to Beverly Hills, and now I’m in Woodland Hills. I love Calabasas. I come out here all the time, but then I go back into suburba-land. It wouldn’t surprise me to be home on a Friday night, midnight, bed. DVR. Greatest thing ever.

What are you working up next?
I don’t know. I worked really hard in the last couple of years, with Nikita and the three movies. Went on some stuff in pilot season that didn’t go, but we’re trying to be selective. My fingers are crossed on Nikita. Who knows? I’d like to go back and finish the Owen character, because he’s kind of in limbo now.

You’ve also said you’d love to work with Scorsese. Are you working at making that happen, lobbying for roles in films with directors of that caliber?
I have a list of people that I want to work with. I met with the Coen brothers, and I’ve never actually talked about this but it was one of the greatest days of my life. I was doing a Nikita episode and there was a Coen brothers movie casting and they were only seeing people on tape. I took the train somewhere in Toronto, put myself on tape, came back, sent it to my managers, watched it again and said, no — I want to do it again. Took the train again all the way back, redid it, sent it in, and a week later they called and said, "The Coen brothers want your cell phone number, they want to call you — we want permission to give your number to the Coen brothers." Uh, yeah! So I waited a couple days and then I get another call saying, "They would like you just to come meet with them in New York." So I flew to New York, met and read with them. I remember at one point while doing a scene I came out of it for a second and they were laughing, and I thought, "Holy shit, the Coen brothers are laughing where they’re supposed to be laughing." It was an amazing thing. It was between me and another guy and it went the other way, but you know, we’re getting into those places.

The Philly Kid is one of five films opening under the After Dark Action banner, in theaters and On Demand today.

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