Inside Eminem's Mystique: Devon Sawa Reveals What It Was Like Working with Slim Shady

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Devon Sawa Spills Secrets on Working with Eminem 25 Years Ago: "He's Hard to Get a Hold Of!"

It's been 25 years since Devon Sawa starred as the infamous Stan in Eminem's groundbreaking music video, but the Canadian actor still can't get over the experience. In an exclusive interview with TheScholarlyNote.com, Sawa dished out all the juicy details about working with the legendary rapper, including a surprising revelation about why he was chosen for the role.

Sawa, 46, recalled his brief time on set with Eminem, saying: "He was there [on set]. He did the scene where he comes out in the cold. He does the [meet and greet at the] table and then his bus stop [writing the letter] was separately, so we didn't have a lot together." But despite their limited time together, Sawa remembered Eminem being "focused and just there to work."

But what really caught our attention was when Sawa revealed that he wasn't even aware of why he was chosen for the role. "I'll never really know the answer to that," he confessed, "but what I heard was that Dr. Dre [Eminem's longtime producer] was a huge Final Destination fan and made a suggestion to the team about me, and somehow a friend of a friend knew somebody - a call on a landline - back in the landline days, and they were like, 'Do you want to be in the music video?'"

Sawa even claimed that he met Dr. Dre for lunch before being sent to meet Eminem at the recording studio, where they allegedly "spoke a little bit" and then two weeks later, Sawa was on set filming Stan. The actor joked: "I didn't feel like I looked like him [Eminem] until we got on set together and they cut my hair, bleached it. We did this one scene in the mirror, and they were having a hard time telling who was who."

But what's even more surprising is that Sawa has lost touch with Eminem over the years, citing the rapper's notorious difficulty to get in contact with him: "I have gone a whole weird path and left acting for a bit, came back and started doing stuff and, apparently, he's really hard to get a hold of. It's not like I can just call him... There's certainly a mystique about Eminem."

However, fate had other plans for the two. At the Stans pop-up in New York City on August 6, Sawa was reunited with Eminem, and this time, he got to introduce his son, Hudson, to the legendary rapper! Sawa captioned a heartwarming photo of his son with Eminem: "25 years ago I worked with one of the greatest musicians of all time. Today he met my son. What a ride."

But what's even more exciting is that TheScholarlyNote.com has exclusively learned that Eminem recently welcomed his first grandchild, Elliot Marshall, born to his daughter Hailie Jade and her husband Evan McClintock in April.

The Stans pop-up event, presented by Complex, was a huge hit with fans, who were all abuzz about the possibility of meeting Eminem. But the surprise of the evening came when the rapper made a stunning appearance at the premiere event for the documentary Stans, which features rare archival footage and intimate interviews with Eminem himself.

In an emotional speech, Eminem told the screaming crowd: "When I was writing this song [Stan] I didn't understand the impact my music was having on people at the time, and it was really surreal to me - and it's still surreal to this day to look out here and see all you, and the fact that my music has inspired you."

But before seeing Eminem again after 25 years, Sawa told TheScholarlyNote.com what he would say if they met again: "I would just say, 'What's up?' I would just say that I've enjoyed his journey as an artist. I'm still a fan." And when asked if he'd try to be less of a Stan in the future, Sawa quipped: "I would try not to be a crazy Stan, but yeah, I'm proud of what he's done."

As it turns out, Sawa was even given an advanced screening of the documentary before its premiere on Wednesday. He revealed that the film is "powerful" and "emotional at times," and praised Eminem for being open about his life and career: "The whole thing with the documentary is that they're using Stan to kind of tell Eminem's stories. So, there's much more going on than just the Stan - that's actually just a small part of the documentary."

So what's next for Sawa? The actor has continued to shoot films and hasn't ventured into music videos since Stan. But when asked if he'd ever consider returning to the recording studio, he replied: "If you're gonna be in a music video, this is like [up here], you know. This is it. I did the music video and I'm done with that." But we wouldn't count him out just yet - after all, stranger things have happened!