Devon Sawa recently spoke to US Weekly about his new series Somewhere Between, whose season 1 finale aired last night. During the interview, he discussed working with his co-star Paula Patton and other topics having to do with the ABC drama, but what I was most relieved to learn from this US Weekly piece was why the actor seemed to have disappeared from Hollywood for awhile in the early 2000s. Since he made me fall in love with him by playing Mark in the 1997 film, Wild America, I felt I deserved an explanation, and he didn't disappoint.
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Sawa began acting when he was 11-years-old, so by the time he was 25, he had been in the business for awhile. It was at that point that he decided to he need to take some time away. He explained to US, "At 25 years old I stepped away from the business for five years and most of the time didn't know whether I was going to come back or not."
During that period, he did a few independent films, which allowed him to continue acting without having to get too involved in the chaos of Hollywood. Unfortunately, though, Sawa admitted that he wasn't all that proud of some of those movies. He said, "Some were horror movies. After Final Destination everybody wanted me to do horror movies and some weren't as good as others. I was just burnt out."
Lucky for those of us who thought he was so dreamy back in the day, Sawa was eventually pulled back into the business. And, it seems like his time away helped keep him grounded. When asked what his on-set trailer essentials are, he gave the cool answer, "I'm not that guy! I just need a place that's a little quiet before I go in and other than that I don't have anything that I need. I'm not the Skittles with no red in a bowl or sparkling water kind of guy." It's pretty rare to find a former child star who's that down-to-earth.