Devon Sawa has come a long way from his bowl cut days. The actor, 40, joined the “Watch With Us” podcast to talk all about his new role in The Fanatic, a film about an autograph collector who begins stalking a celebrity. Sawa portrays action movie star Hunter Dunbar while John Travolta plays Moose, the character loosely based on someone director Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit) met years ago.
“He wasn’t very sure about me for the role because I hadn’t done anything for a while other than Nikita and stuff that he hadn’t seen. So I went down and I laid it all on tape for him and basically fought really hard to get the role,” the Escape Plan actor told Us Weekly. “John had sent me a picture of the of the character that he was going to play, and I absolutely had to be a part of it.”
The theme of fandom, however, wasn’t a new concept to Sawa, who got his Hollywood start in dozens of fan-favorite films including Now & Then, Little Giants, Casper and Wild America.
“There was a point where Jonathan [Taylor Thomas] and I were in London, and we shared a limo,” Sawa remembered of the press tour in 1997. “It was, like, [we were] The Beatles! They were chasing our car and smacking the windows, and that’s when I finally realized that, ‘Holy s–t, this is this is this is getting crazy.’”
However, when he wasn’t filming, he was in Canada with his family and was sheltered from the teen magazines and mega fans. That said, he’s well aware he was on the walls of many girls in America.
While it’s been 22 years since Wild America, Sawa added, “I spoke to Jonathan a month ago for the first time in a long time.”
As for others from his childhood that he stays in touch with, he admitted that “sometimes you click, sometimes you don’t” on set. However, he did recently reunite with Christina Ricci, with whom he costarred in both Casper and Now & Then — and kissed her in both.
“It was so great seeing Christina. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time,” he said.
In the world of reboots, Sawa said he wouldn’t be surprised if Little Giants or Now & Then were remade. “It’s really kind of sad,” he noted. “They’re robbing kids of original content.”
So, who’s the one character he would revisit? Anton Tobias.
“If they called me, I would jump for joy if they did an Idle Hands sequel,” he told Us. “I know that they didn’t make money in the box office for whatever reason, but that was a fun, fun set and that’s a character I would love to revisit for sure.”
For more from Sawa, listen to the podcast above. The Fanatic hits theaters Friday, August 30.
