Man who played Stan in Eminem music video looks different now
Dear, Slim. The actor from Eminem’s iconic 2000s Stan music video is all grown up now, and you’re probably not going to recognise him.
I think this music video might be able to be welcomed into the hall of fame of most traumatising visuals ever played on daytime TV.
That’s because Eminem’s song appears in the form of an increasingly dark and worrying exchange with a fan while the singer seems to be on tour.
There, the singer raps the series of letters, from a fan called Stan, who talks about his life, upbringing, and how his music helped his life.
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But as the song goes on, and Eminem doesn’t respond, the context of the letters grows scarier.
At the end, the fan sends a final letter which describes his intent to drive himself off a bridge with his pregnant girlfriend (Dido) locked in the boot of the car.
Finally, Eminem responds, detailing a horrible realisation that what he heard on the news about a murder-suicide car accident was Stan.
Now, the fact I didn’t have to look any of those details up shows you just how much of an impact the music video and lyrics had on my generation, right?
But so did the performance Devon Sawa delivered.
At the time, the 90s film star was just 22 when he took the role of Stan.
But before that, you may remember him from films like Casper (ifykyk), Little Giants, and Final Destination.
However, Sawa seemed to have dropped off the face of the Earth after gaining worldwide fame in the spooky thriller.
But at 47, he’s back with a new appearance.
Sawa appeared at a SAG-AFTRA event to promote his next film, The Girl in the River, which was hosted by Tiffany Haddish and The Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio.
Obviously, considering a lot of people haven’t seen him since Final Destinations 26 years ago, he looked a lot different thanks to nearly three decades of ageing.
However, his previous projects are obviously still on his mind.
Just last August, Sawa spoke to the Daily Mail about the experience of working on Stan, and particularly with Eminem.
“He was there [on set],” he revealed. “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.”
Sawa added: “But I remember him being focused and just there to work. He was there to work - that's what I remember.”
Oddly, he also explained that he wasn’t the first choice to play Stan.
No, it was apparently Macaulay Culkin.
He told Entertainment Tonight: “They went out to Macaulay Culkin first. I think that they wanted him, and he wasn't available, or didn't want to do it or whatever.”
He said of how he came to be casted: There happened to be somebody in the casting office that knew somebody who was friends with me, and they called me that way...and it ended up working out pretty good. It's also one of the proudest things I've been a part of.”
Britt Jones