Devon Sawa Once Shared There Was a Lot of Teen Drama Behind the Scenes of ‘Now and Then’
Actor Devon Sawa became a star after Christina Ricci helped land him a brief role in Casper. Sawa and Ricci would eventually wind up reuniting again on the set of Now and Then. In Sawa’s more mature years, the actor gave some keen insight into what doing the movie was really like behind the scenes.
Devon Sawa said doing ‘Now and Then’ felt like Summer Camp
Sawa’s 1995 drama Now and Then continued the upswing that he was experiencing as a child actor. The movie saw him reunite with Ricci, who also helped Sawa secure the part. Sawa explained his audition process for Now and Then in an interview with Vulture.
“I remember that I was in my childhood home in British Columbia, Canada, and this gentleman I used to put myself on tape with, who was an actor in Vancouver — the same guy that put me on tape for Casper — he came over and we laid down a VHS tape in our family room, and sent it off. I know that I’d been recommended by Christina Ricci for the part, and I waited a good solid week, and learned that I got it,” Sawa said.
Sawa especially got to know Ricci on the Now and Then set, where their chemistry in the movie was on full display. Looking back on the film, Sawa confided that it was still a very nostalgic piece for him even in his older years.
“It felt like summer camp. We were all in this hotel, and we all hung out and tried to stay out as late as we could. It was very safe, we filmed in Savannah, Georgia. There was a movie theater a couple blocks away, and we saw Pulp Fiction four or five times in the theater,” he said.
But Sawa remembered it wasn’t always peaceful on set. As with many kids, he recalled there was a lot of bickering and fighting among the younger cast and crew. However, even when the cast didn’t see eye to eye, they were still having a good time.
“We were like, 13, 14, 15 years old. Everything you can imagine in a childhood camp went on. Bickering between the girls, bickering between us. Then the next day everyone’s friends again, then somebody’s not talking to somebody. It was so childish and so innocent. I don’t think anybody would recall what it was all about,” Sawa said.
How Devon Sawa reacted to the cast of ‘Now and Then’ having a crush on him
What Sawa didn’t know until many years after Now and Then first hit theaters was that his co-stars took quite a liking to him. Apart from Ricci, Sawa worked alongside Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, and Ashleigh Ashton in the picture. The four of them fancied Sawa so much that they secretly held a contest to try and win him over. Sawa sounded stunned by the revelation.
“Oh, man. I’m flattered! I didn’t know. I don’t know who said it. It may have been taken out of context. I don’t know. We were all so young,” Sawa said.
It was also revealed that Ricci won the contest between the girls, which the Chucky star expected. But he didn’t go into too much detail about what happened with him, Ricci, and his other co-stars behind the scenes. He did, however, call out Thora Birch for spilling too much info about their time together.
“That Thora. Loose lips Thora, we’re gonna call her! You already know more than I would tell you [about what we were up to on set]. Thora wasn’t smoking, but the rest of us were. We were doing things we shouldn’t have been doing when parents weren’t looking,” he said.
The girls’ crush on Sawa wasn’t all that one-sided, though. Speaking with Us Weekly, a candid Sawa admitted he had a crush on the other girls, too.
“I had a crush on all the girls,” Sawa said. “I had a crush on Gabby, I had a crush on Christina – all the girls. I was the only guy on set. It was a great summer.”
