Devon Sawa Recalls Rick Moranis Going Through ‘Family Stuff’ When Making Little Giants: ‘We Were Respectful’ (Exclusive)

Devon Sawa is looking back on his time making Little Giants with Rick Moranis.

Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the release of his new movie Heart Eyes, the 46-year-old former child star recalls his fond memories of Moranis, 71.

“He would come in and he would do his scenes, and he was a very kind man,” Sawa remembers. “I think that he was dealing with some stuff during the shooting of that movie, so we didn’t see a lot of him. [The child cast] were told that he was going through some family stuff. And so we were respectful of that.”

Little Giants was one of Moranis’ final live-action film roles following the death of his wife, makeup artist Ann Belsky, in February 1991. Not long after the movie’s debut in October 1994, Moranis took a step back from acting to focus on being a single father to daughter Rachel and son Mitchell.

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Little Giants follows Moranis as pee-wee football coach Danny O’Shea, who leads an underdog team (including his daughter Becky “Icebox” O’Shea, played by Shawna Waldron) to victory against a team of jocks coached by none other than his bullish older brother Kevin O’Shea, played by Ed O’Neill. Sawa was having a ’90s-heartthrob moment when he joined the cast of Little Giants as rough-and-tumble quarterback Junior Floyd, who played for Kevin’s team.

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Sawa says he and Moranis haven’t kept in touch over the years, but he remains a fan of the work the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids star has done during his career.

Other standout films of Moranis’ include Ghostbusters (1984) and its 1989 sequel, Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Spaceballs (1987) and The Flintstones (1994). He’s also known for his numerous TV appearances, perhaps most notably on Saturday Night Live.

“He’s amazing,” Sawa tells PEOPLE of Moranis. “Everything he’s done, it’s phenomenal.”

Heart Eyes is theaters now.