Devon Sawa opened up in an interview with The New York Times about how his alcoholism affected his career in Hollywood.
Sawa Was a ’90s Heartthrob
In the ‘90s, the Canadian national was a teen heartthrob known for his roles in Little Giants (1994), Casper, and Now and Then (both 1995). As he approached his 20s, Sawa became synonymous with the decade’s horror boom, appearing in the cult comedy Idle Hands (1998) and the original Final Destination (2000). But when he moved to L.A. at 18, Sawa’s career objectives shifted and he began partying instead of chasing down roles.
“I had a fake ID, and no one looked twice,” Sawa said. “I would roll into those places in my pajamas. There’s no cellphones, so no one could record anything, and everything was going on in those clubs at the time.”
But the Partying Hurt His Career
It wasn’t long before the change in lifestyle affected his career. After a string of public scrapes with the law and appearing hungover at work, Sawa admitted he wasn’t asked back for 2003’s Final Destination sequel because the studio “thought I might be a liability” due to his excessive drinking and partying. Despite Sawa surviving the gory teen thriller, he was unceremoniously killed off-screen in the sequel. He’s yet to appear in any further franchise installments, the most recent of which was released in May.
When Sawa’s agents “firmly suggested he quit acting and move back to Canada,” Sawa did just that. “Acting was always what I was going to do for the rest of my life—until it wasn’t,” he admitted.
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Sawa returned to Vancouver and made overtures towards seeking help, but nothing stuck until a humiliating experience in which he arrived heavily intoxicated to a family Christmas celebration. “I crawled into 90 meetings in 90 days on my own. I knew that I had to do it on my own,” he said. “Finally, like the saying goes, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
He’s Made a Comeback in Recent Years
Sawa, who has been sober since 2006, eventually cleaned up his act and returned to Hollywood, where he proceeded to pick up the pieces of his once-hot career. He starred on the TV series Nikita (2010–2013) and Chucky (2021–2024) while taking roles in low-budget, straight-to-video thrillers like The Fanatic (2019) and Black Friday (2021) before netting a starring role in the critically acclaimed horror-comedy Heart Eyes (2025), which marked the actor’s first wide-release film since 2002’s Extreme Ops. The actor capped off his Hollywood comeback with a one-episode guest spot on the second season of Hacks, playing a bar patron with whom Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) has a one-night stand.
“It got bumpy at times,” Sawa admitted, “but I think that if I wasn’t in the film business, those times would have been a lot bumpier and a lot longer.”
