Devon Sawa Talks ‘Somewhere Between’ and Reflects on His Experience as a Child Actor [Exclusive Interview]

Devon Sawa is returning to our screens once again.

If you grew up in the 90s, you’ll no doubt remember Sawa from films like Casper, Now and Then, and Little Giants. Or perhaps you remember him from Wild America, Final Destination, or more recently, from The CW’s Nikita.

Next up, Sawa stars as Nico Jackson in the ABC thriller, Somewhere Between, alongside Paula Patton.

I had the chance to chat with Sawa about the new series, the challenges of working in television, and why his experience as a child actor was so positive.

For Sawa, being a part of Somewhere Between was something that he said “just felt right.”

“A few different things made me want to be a part of it. First of all, it was already picked up to series. It was already ten episodes committed from ABC, so it had to be special,” Sawa began.

“It’s just one of those shows that starts dropping bombs on you and leaves you hanging and looking for answers, and that’s kind of what I like in a TV show. So that was the other thing. And then of course Paula [Patton] was attached to it, and I liked that idea as well.”

Though he wasn’t able to give away too many details about his character, Sawa did share a few hints.

“Nico Jackson is a private investigator, ex-cop, and he’s just kind of getting by in life. He’s got a serious drinking problem, and he’s just kind of coasting. He’s taking the easy road and just coasting through his days, and he gets dealt this hand of cards. It messes his world up, and now he’s just dealing with it,” Sawa said.

While it was something he was excited to be a part of, filming Somewhere Between wasn’t without its challenges. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Sawa admitted.

“I haven’t done a lot of TV. I did Nikita for four years, and the nice thing about Nikita was there was an A and a B story, always. I was on the A story for a while, so you’d always have a couple of days off to learn lines, and go to the gym, and get your stuff back together before you had to jump back into it. And same thing with the B story — maybe a few more days off.”

“But this particular show, Paula and I were the A story, and there wasn’t really a B story. We grinded it out for four months — a lot of night shifts, a lot of rain,” Sawa continued. “It was a tough show to shoot. And at the end of it we were both done. It was just like, ‘Okay, we’re done. We’re finished.’ But it was worth it.”

One thing that makes Somewhere Between unique is that it will have a definite conclusion by the end of the season.

“When we started the first episode, we knew that in Episode 10, we would have an ending. That would be it. It’s one and done. If it goes to another season — it’s possible, they could think of another idea. Maybe they could change the whole thing like American Horror Story, who knows? But it’s one and done,” Sawa confirmed.

“It’s going to feel like a long ten-hour movie.”

He praised the quality of the storytelling as well. “Stephen Tolkin’s ability to drop these cliff-hanging bombs everywhere is something that the audiences are really going to love. It’s what makes the good TV shows great,” he said. “You’ll wanna binge-watch the whole thing at once.”

The supporting cast was something else Sawa said he was impressed with. “You don’t get it often, but there was not one weak link in the chain. Everybody, from the smallest part all the way out, was fantastic,” he said. “It all fit perfectly. The cast was very strong, and it was amazing.”

Sawa also reflected on the work he did as a child actor in the nineties, and how that path led him to where he is now.

“It’s where I came from. It’s what got me to where I am today, and a lot of those movies I’m extremely proud of,” he said.

“I think in my early twenties, I didn’t want to talk about them as much. Listen, when I was twenty-two, the last thing I wanted to talk about was Casper. But now that I’m older, it’s — that was my start. So I’m very proud of it.”

For Sawa, being a child actor was a completely positive experience.

“You hear these stories of actors that were child actors that didn’t have such a great time, or there was whatever controversy surrounding it,” he noted. “But I really can’t complain about being a child actor. I got to visit the most amazing places and work with the most eclectic and amazing people. I became the person who I am today because of that stuff, and it was all really a great experience. I don’t know whether I’m one of those rare child actors that can say that, but I worked with some of the top companies, and it was always just amazing.”

“It’s sad to me when you hear the stories about the child actors that have not such a great experience, because it really wasn’t that way for all of us,” Sawa added.

Sawa recalled one encounter that involved some crazed fans during that time, though he said that generally, interacting with fans has always been wonderful.

“I remember one particular experience that was kind of crazy, was when we went over to London — Jonathan Taylor Thomas and I — and we were in a car that was being chased by fans. That was probably the craziest experience. But other than that, I’ve had pretty amazing experiences,” he said. “I’ve never had a bad experience meeting a fan.”

As he got older, though, Sawa realized he needed to take a break from acting.

“I had been going pretty hard from the age of eleven until about the age of twenty-five. And at the age of twenty-five, I felt a little burnt out, and I didn’t know whether I wanted to act anymore. I wasn’t doing the things that I wanted to do, and I stepped away,” he explained.

“It was kind of by accident that I got back into it. I got sent a script via snail mail and decided I’d put myself on tape for it. And all of the sudden, a week later, I was back meeting with managers and realized that this is what I want to do and that I just needed that break. I just needed that five years to figure out that this is what I really love.”

The decision to return to acting wasn’t necessarily an easy road, however. “Once I did come back, it wasn’t like all the doors had suddenly swung open for me. It took a little bit of grinding before, bless their hearts, the Nikita people opened the door, and said, you know, we’ll take a shot at him. And now I’ve been working steady since and on stuff that I want to do. It’s been amazing.”

Things had also changed a bit during those years that Sawa was taking a break.

“The one major thing that had changed for me was that I had never done TV before, and when I got back, TV was all of a sudden the big thing,” he explained. “So getting into TV was an adjustment. I had never done it before. I didn’t know how quick it moved. The workload — the whole process of TV I wasn’t prepared for,” he admitted.

“It was all a huge learning experience, and I had to learn really quickly. I did NCIS: LA. It was a part that was supposed to go further, and it didn’t just because [when] I got to set, I was out of my element,” he continued.

“Once I got to Nikita, I kind of figured out, ‘Okay, you’ve got to be on the ball. You gotta keep moving. You have be prepared.’ And then the rest is history.”

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Be sure to catch Devon Sawa on Somewhere Between, premiering Monday, July 24th at 10/9c on ABC.

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