Wow, Devon Sawa and Macaulay Culkin Talking Child Stardom Together Is '90s Nostalgia Gold
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If you grew up in the '90s, you can't help but feel nostalgic when you hear the names Macaulay Culkin and Devon Sawa. The actors, now 38 and 40 years old, respectively, came up around the same time with similar starts as child stars. Macaulay became a household name with leading roles in movies like My Girl and Home Alone, while Devon won over tweens in Casper, Little Giants, and Now and Then. (You better believe I had multiple Devon Sawa pictures taped to my wall, and when people asked who I had a crush on, I'd say, "Junior Floyd.")
The parallels between their early careers made it all the more surreal when, last Summer, the pair got into a sort of tongue-in-cheek Twitter "feud," which began after Devon noticed that Macaulay was selling "Devon Sawa" shirts on his website. What followed was a funny, bizarre back-and-forth that felt particularly entertaining to those of us who adored them in the '90s. As a follow-up to the surprising exchange, New York Magazine recently got the pair into the same room for the first time ever for a hilarious, thoughtful interview about everything from child stardom to the bizarre rumors they hear about themselves. Keep reading for a look at some of the best quotes from their conversation, then just for kicks, test your knowledge of '90s movies.
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On how each of them got into acting:
Devon Sawa: I got into it partially because I was a problematic child. I wanted to be the center of attention all the time.
Macaulay Culkin: . . . I was an energetic kid. I had way too much energy, I was always putting on shows for the family and things like that. My father, he really wanted my older brother and sister to go into acting and so forth. So he would go and get some headshots with them and then my mother, because I was the youngest out of all of them, was like, "Hey, listen, I want the afternoon off. Just take Mack with you, too." I showed up and I made a jackass of myself during the first audition. Ended up sitting on the table, marching around like a jerk. And next thing you know, I get hired for that.
On being the "symptom" of other people's nostalgia:
MC: Listen, what's it like to breathe in and out? No, for real, what's it like to eat, drink, sh*t? It's not like I have a choice. That's day-to-day life. People view me a certain way, and I can't help that. I'm never going to explain myself in that kind of way. It's just the way it is.
DS: There are some celebrities that won't embrace it. If they're promoting a movie and someone brings up the past, they're like, "Don't bring that up! I don't want to talk about it!" I had to make peace with it very early. I get "Can I keep you?" — which is a line from Casper — at least three times a week, as if no one's tweeted it before.
MC: For years and years and years, I'll get two or three calls a year from friends, usually female, crying because they've just watched My Girl. "I know you're okay — I just wanted to make sure you were okay, though!" I'm alive, I'm alive.
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On the weird rumors they hear about themselves:
MC: I die all the time. That's fun. That's always great. The worst part is when I have to reassure people. My mom calls me and I say, "No, I'm alive." My friend Regina cries, and that sucks. Otherwise, it's f*cking hilarious.
DS: I get the same thing, except they think I'm Brad Renfro. They tell me his life story and I go, "No, that's Brad Renfro," and they're like, "Oh, good! You're still alive!" Yeah, thanks.
On why they're glad technology wasn't the same back then:
DS: . . . I am glad there weren't camera phones.
MC: As soon as they put cameras on phones, I thought, It's a f*cking disaster. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
DS: When I was in the clubs with my generation — *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, all them — if there were camera phones in those clubs, with all the sh*t that was going down —
MC: They were really pixelated, though, so it would have been okay.