‘90s Teen Heartthrob, 46, Says Hollywood Fame Sent Him Into a 'Dark, Crazy' Spiral
‘90s Teen Heartthrob, 46, Says Hollywood Fame Sent Him Into a 'Dark, Crazy' Spiral originally appeared on Parade.
It was rare to find a teen girl in the mid-90s and early 2000s who wasn’t in love with Devon Sawa. With hits like Idle Hands and Final Destination, he was the definition of a teen heartthrob, but he recently admitted that his fame as a young actor had a cost.
“Idle Hands was probably the last movie I did OK,” Sawa, 46, told Tyler Labine during an appearance on the “ILYSM Podcast” on July 30. “Then I was introduced to the Los Angeles club scene just as Final Destination was coming out.”
The Canada native added that Eminem’s “Stan” video, which he starred in, was also “playing on repeat on MTV.”
“You get in this scene where everybody wants to buy you a drink and other stuff and that's kind of when it just went all crazy,” Sawa continued. “That's when it started to get less important about what I was doing with the thing that I loved before and more important about, you know, ‘We're going to the Playboy Mansion,’ ‘We're going to the Sky Bar,’ ‘We're going to New York and we're going to go to Vegas and not even sleep for four days.’”
The Casper star explained that he was “always going to become an addict or an alcoholic,” but he felt like the film industry during his teenage years was his “safe place.”
“I did it for four dark, crazy years. It was fun for a few and then it was not fun at all,” Sawa admitted.
He said that he hit “rock bottom” when none of his friends and family wanted a relationship with him anymore. When Sawa attended a family function under the influence on Christmas Eve in 2006, his grandmother slapped him and that was enough to put things into perspective. The next morning he woke up and decided to get sober.
Sawa has remained alcohol-free ever since, and he recently showcased his range by playing multiple characters across all three seasons of Chucky before the series wrapped in 2024. He’s now nearly 19 years sober and will celebrate the milestone on Christmas Day 2025.
‘90s Teen Heartthrob, 46, Says Hollywood Fame Sent Him Into a 'Dark, Crazy' Spiral first appeared on Parade on Aug 2, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
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