Devon Sawa would love to work with “sweetheart” Jessica Alba again after costarring in the 1999 horror comedy Idle Hands — but an apology may be in order first.
“You know, Elden [Henson], Seth [Green], myself, Vivica [A. Fox], we had been doing it a minute longer than her,” Sawa, 46, exclusively recalled to Us Weekly of their time on the film. “This was her big movie. We were all goofing. We were all, like, teenagers and we were all goofing around and it was hard to get us to focus but Jessica was like, ‘This is it. I’m doing this thing.’ She was focused. And sure enough, Jessica’s Jessica now!”
Idle Hands followed Sawa’s Anton, a teen slacker who finds out that his right hand has been possessed by a mysterious — and seriously murderous — force. After “accidentally” killing two of his best friends (portrayed by Henseon and Green), Anton has to figure out how to shake the appendage of death before it hurts his neighbor – and crush – Molly, played by Alba.
Sawa told Us that it was clear from the get go that Alba, now 43, was “on a mission” to nail her performance, which wasn’t always easy with Sawa and the other costars’ hijinks. “You could tell that she was on a mission. She was focused and we were all just hard to deal with,” he noted. “But she’s a sweetheart and I haven’t seen her in a very long time and I would love to see her again.”
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While Sawa’s chemistry with Alba was certainly palpable, it was his on screen connection with another ‘90s darling, Christina Ricci, that still has fans going wild all these years later. The twosome were intrinsically linked after starring together 1995’s Casper and Now and Then. Millennials have been wishing and hoping to see a reunion between them ever since.
Sawa, for his part, is totally down to make that happen. Earlier this year, the actor took to X to agree with a fan who thought he and Ricci should reunite for a romantic comedy. Sawa echoed that sentiment while speaking to Us.
“Obviously if I was gonna do a romantic comedy and Christina wanted to do it with me, I think we would make, like, $50 million in the first weekend,” he explained. “That’s, like, it’s a no brainer.”
Ricci or not, the rom-com genre is definitely something Sawa wants to explore. “I definitely have romance in me and I could get into those Tom Hanks-y rolls from the ‘90s,” he said, before realizing he may have just sent the internet ablaze once again: “Oh god, this is going to be all over the place now!”
Another idea? Bringing him and his fellow Wild America costar Jonathan Taylor Thomas back together by casting Thomas, 43, as the best friend in this hypothetical film starring Sawa and Ricci. When pitched the idea by Us, Sawa couldn’t help but smile while recalling memories with his longtime pal.
“I spoke to him a few years ago and it was so good to hear his voice,” Sawa shared. “He sounds kind of the same, a little older, obviously. But he’s doing well and I love that dude. That was a wonderful experience.”
Sawa and Thomas teamed up for the 1997 family comedy, which starred the duo as brothers (along with Scott Bairstow) who take off on a cross country camping trip in hopes of capturing snapshots of the natural world — and avoiding taking on their family business in small town Arkansas. Sawa remembers the experience of filming fondly, despite the film not being popular in his own household.
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“Even though my kids don’t like the movie, It was a good one to shoot,” he confessed, noting that the cult classic garnered “two thumbs down” from 10-year-old son Hudson and 8-year-old daughter Scarlett, whom he shares with wife Dawni Sahanovitch. “They weren’t buying the men walking around in bear costumes or the puppet snakes,” he told Us. “It didn’t age well.”
Sawa added that his kids haven’t seen a ton of his newer work, either — the Chucky series and his new horror comedy Heart Eyes are too mature for their young eyes — but that’s OK.
“I just wanna keep doing what I love doing,” he told Us. “Like, what would I watch? That’s what I want to do.”
