90s Casper icon Devon Sawa reveals why he spent decades trying to erase his biggest role

For generations of moviegoers who grew up in the 1990s, Devon Sawa will forever be the teenage dream who floated onto the dancefloor and whispered four immortal words: "Can I keep you?"

Yet for the actor himself, escaping the shadow of that spectral dance took decades.

Speaking to PEOPLE, the 48-year-old Canadian actor admitted that he spent years harboring deep frustration toward the 1995 fantasy classic Casper, actively refusing to discuss the brief cameo that cemented his status as a quintessential '90s heartthrob.

Directed by Brad Silberling and starring Christina Ricci as Kat Harvey and Bill Pullman as her paranormal therapist father, Casper proved to be a box-office juggernaut, pulling in nearly $291 million worldwide.

While the titular friendly ghost spent the vast majority of the runtime as a CGI creation, Sawa appeared in the flesh during the emotional climax, granted a temporary reprieve from the afterlife to share a slow dance with Kat at a Halloween party.

Casper was largely a CGI ghost voiced by Malachi Pearson, however his human form at the end of the film is when Devon stole the show (Disney+)

The scene turned Sawa into an instant pop-culture fixture, but as he transitioned out of teen stardom and sought out grit in films like Idle Hands and Final Destination, the relentless nostalgia became a professional burden.

"There was a time in my life I was like, 'I don’t wanna talk about Casper. How dare you? I’m a thespian,' you know?" Sawa admitted, reflecting on his early impulses to distance himself from the commercial hit.

However, with the passage of time—and the film celebrating its enduring popularity with a 30th-anniversary theatrical re-release—Sawa says he has entirely abandoned his former resistance, finding peace with the movie that laid the foundation for his entire career.

"Doesn’t matter what I do nowadays. It doesn’t matter how cool the project is, I will always have to say, 'Can I keep you?' to somebody at some point," Sawa explained. "There will always be Casper stuff... But I gotta embrace it. It’s why I’m here. It’s what got me here."

Yet despite the success of the film, Devon has spent the last 30 years trying to shake his iconic role (Raymond Hall/GC Images)

Now, Sawa is returning to the supernatural genre with Coven Academy, a Disney series set at a magical New Orleans boarding school where he plays warlock professor Mr. Cole alongside Tiffani Thiessen.

Rather than dreading long-term associations, Sawa hopes this venture leaves just as indelible a mark on a new generation.

"I think [Coven Academy] is going to be one of those [shows] that hopefully in 20 years, people will be like, 'Oh, Mr. Cole.' And I won’t be able to shake that either," he said.

Coven Academy is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.