#TBT TV: 12-year-old Haley Joel Osment on “The Sixth Sense” (2000)

Haley Joel Osment The Sixth Sense

Haley Joel Osment The Sixth Sense

He went from being one of the most celebrated child actors ever to … well, The Country Bears. But Haley Joel Osment is making something of a comeback, thanks to offbeat appearances in Kevin Smith’s cult-comedy/horror True North Trilogy.

Back in May 2000, Channel Guide Magazine‘s Jeff Pfeiffer scored an interview with Osment for The Sixth Sense, which made Osment a household name at age 12 (and set M. Night Shyamalan’s bar way too high). Osment was on the cover, and we also featured interviews with child stars Jena Malone (still going strong!) and Frankie Muniz (er, not so much).

The article is a fascinating profile of a 12-year-old boy who loves lizards, Nintendo and sports, and has Pay it Forward and A.I. Artificial Intelligence in his future.

Haley’s Comments: A Young Star Shoots Through The Hollywood Universe

By Jeff Pfeiffer

“Hi, Jeff! It’s Haley!”

I had been expecting the call, but not necessarily the chipper, excited, confident voice I’m hearing now. Two things become obvious right away with those few words: I am definitely talking to a kid; but I am also not talking to just any kid. In a way, Haley Joel Osment is like most 12-year-olds, at a point in life where childhood is still maintaining a slight hold, not yet ready to give way fully to the teen and adult years ahead, although those elements are clearly visible. Osment, who has been acting for more than half of his young life, and who has seen and done more than most people his age, is in that middle ground — confident, comfortable and mature in the interview process, yet still conveying a sense of excitement and awe not often found in his usually more jaded older counterparts.

He has just returned from schooling as we speak, and earlier in the day he had been working on his next film, Pay It Forward. A busy day by any standard, but he takes it all in stride like an old pro. “It was a pretty short day,” he says. “But I just did school for most of it.”

The energy in this voice is vastly different from the character Osment plays in The Sixth Sense, a role that brought him into Hollywood’s limelight. (You can see him in this role when The Sixth Sense is iN DEMAND beginning this month.) That character, Cole Sear, has a voice that is tormented, frightened and confused. The difference between Osment’s personality and his character’s personality makes it even more obvious what a great acting job Osment did in the film. Yet Osment is pretty modest about this part, and like all good actors, he first credits the film’s writing.

“It was one of those rare scripts where I knew I wanted to do the movie right away,” says Osment. “It was just an incredible script. It was one of the best I’ve ever read, and it was so beautiful. … It was really moving and written so well it really made me believe what was happening there.”

The script was so good, in fact, that Osment couldn’t take his eyes off it. “I read it twice before the audition, and then I read it about three more times before starting the shoot, and then I read it a couple more during the time we were shooting. We had very few script revisions.”

The creepy nature of the film did nothing to stifle his desire for the role. “I love scary movies!” Osment exclaims, naming Alien as one of his favorites. But what we see on-screen as scary may not look all that scary on a set when tons of cast and crew are around, which challenges an actor to get into a creeped-out mood. “It is. It’s very hard,” Osment admits. “I just believed in the character and what was happening right then. It just made me get scared, as the character was supposed to be. There were all different ways of getting scared — that’s what made it such a unique script. In different scenes there were different ways I’d react to things that were scary. Imagination is good for children and adults, especially in acting.”

Imagination may seem like a realm in which child actors have the upper hand over the adults, but Osment notes, “It depends on how the kids take it. I just take it as fun and games. Most kids just take it as fun and want to have fun with it. It makes it a lot easier.” Then, quietly, and with almost the vocal equivalent of a shrug, he understates, “It’s easy.”

Not much fazes this kid. On the subject of whether or not there may really be ghosts like those in the film, he states, “After doing Sixth Sense, it makes me believe that maybe there is something like that out there. I guess I would know what to do [if I saw one] now that I’ve done [the film]!”

And here on our earthly plane, not even the daunting prospect of working with megastar Bruce Willis was that worrisome to Osment. “[I was] not intimidated at all,” he calmly says. “You usually think if you’re working with someone that is that big of a star you will be intimidated and you’ll be kind of afraid to work with him. But Bruce is a very nice guy. He treated everyone as an equal and is a great person to work with.”

Working with an established actor like Willis would seem like a good chance to learn more about the craft, and Osment agrees that he learned “a lot. [Willis] put so much effort into it, and it’s hard not to learn anything when you’re watching him.”

After seeing The Sixth Sense, however, many people may feel actors could learn something from Osment. What seems easy and like fun and games to Osment has blown away most critics, who appreciate the more complicated acting elements Osment may not yet fully understand, but which he instinctively brought to the role that garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. People may not have expected such a mature performance from such a young actor, but Osment does not think children are necessarily underestimated as actors. “I think maybe some of them, but it really depends on what people think of the performance.”

Certainly the Academy thought well of Osment’s performance. We are talking four days before Oscar night. Is he nervous? Are you kidding? “Not at all,” he says. He matter-of-factly states that he will be up on the stage, and even that doesn’t reveal any nervousness. It may help that filming Pay It Forward has teamed him with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. “I’ve got two Oscar winners!” he laughs. Their advice to him for Oscar night was “pretty much what everybody who’s been there says: Just have fun and relax. Because it is going to be fun — I can’t wait!”

Having a great imagination, though, Osment has of course envisioned what it might be like to be accepting the gold statuette. “I’ve thought about it, but I never plan on winning anything. Just in case, I have just, like, sort of a fragment of [an acceptance speech] because, you know, if somebody gets an Oscar, you can’t plan out what you say.”

Osment and Spacey (also up for an Oscar this year) have become pretty good friends on the Pay It Forward set. “I’ll probably talk to [Spacey] a lot [at the Oscars],” says Osment.

It seems natural that after the huge success of The Sixth Sense, Osment would be receiving more opportunities to star among high-profile actors as he does in Pay It Forward. But aside from this film, there is not too much that he will definitely be working on in the near future. “We’ve received a few [scripts],” Osment says, “but we’re still thinking about what we’re going to do now.”

Osment is not much more revealing when talking about Pay It Forward, demonstrating mature restraint from saying too much. In the film, he portrays “a boy who is inspired by his teacher, who is Kevin Spacey’s character, to change the world.” When asked how this boy goes about doing that, Osment shyly states, “Well, we’re trying to keep that pretty secret right now.”

Trade reports lately have also been abuzz with perhaps the biggest name in Hollywood — Steven Spielberg — in association with Osment. One report stated that one of the reasons Spielberg turned down the chance to direct Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, based on the popular J.K. Rowling book, was because Spielberg wanted Osment in the title role and Rowling wanted a British actor. More recently, when it was announced that Spielberg’s next directing project would be Stanley Kubrick’s long-in-development and unfinished sci-fi project A.I., reports immediately followed that Osment was in negotiations to star. About this project, Osment says, “We’re not sure yet. We’ve got a lot to decide.”

More certain is his role in Discover Spot, not a big-budget feature but a series of videotapes based on the popular children’s books starring the dog Spot, whose voice will be provided by Osment.

Although just gaining major notice now, Osment has been acting since the age of 5 (his first role was in a Pizza Hut commercial). He credits his dad as one of his main influences. “My dad’s an actor, and I’d always wanted to do it because of him. I had watched him and I thought it would be fun. And, along with loving to play imaginary games, I just always wanted to act. When I was 5, my parents figured I was old enough.”

He definitely was old enough, and it did not take long before this precocious youngster began working in TV and films, including playing three well-known sons: Forrest Gump Jr. in the 1994 Tom Hanks blockbuster; Avery, Murphy Brown’s son on the popular sitcom; and son Matt on The Jeff Foxworthy Show. Working in both media, Osment has found that “they’re completely different. I love doing both.”

But, although Osment has had almost a sixth sense of his own in his career choices and has appeared in important roles, not everything always goes his way. Perhaps his most interesting role would have been the big one he did not get. He auditioned to play Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. This was “a long time ago,” Osment laughs, his words echoing the famous opening titles of the Star Wars saga. “Before Sixth Sense, before The Jeff Foxworthy Show. I was shooting [the 1994 TV series] Thunder Alley when I had to shoot for that. Hundreds of kids auditioned the way I did.” The folks at Lucasfilm must surely be kicking themselves right about now.

That setback obviously has not negatively impacted Osment’s ability to work. But when child actors work, certain considerations must be made for their education as well. Osment says that a typical day for him when he is working would be “three hours of school, the rest is work, with an hour lunch, including recreation, so that’s about a 10-and-a-half-hour day. That’s how much I can stay on the set.”

When it comes to personal time, Osment notes that “I’m pretty busy, but it balances out pretty well.” And when the topic arises of just what he does with that personal time, we are definitely in the realm of a 12-year-old boy. “I collect pet lizards. I play with the pets a lot. I have a Nintendo computer I mess around with a lot, a lot of strategical games. Sports I love to do. I’m playing basketball and football with my friends and on a team as well.”

How do his friends react to his success? “Friends don’t look at me differently at all. Everything’s normal when I’m not working.”

And when thinking about his work, Osment also thinks about people he would like to be working with. “Spielberg I would love to work with a lot,” laughs Osment. “Jodie Foster, Ron Howard, Anthony Hopkins. People I look up to.” He pauses a minute, then laughs as he quickly remembers his new buddy from Pay It Forward. “Kevin Spacey I look up to now, [after] working with him! Everybody I’ve worked with I look up to now.”

No doubt Osment himself will soon have people looking up to him, perhaps even his own sister Emily, who has begun acting herself recently.

Osment’s taste in the films he likes to watch may also explain why he seems so ahead of his years when it comes to acting. Some of his favorites may not be on every 12-year-old’s list: “Blade Runner is one of my favorites, and Gone With The Wind is another.” He would also like to try acting in different genres. “Science fiction would be fun, and action I haven’t done. I just like to do as many different types of films as possible.”

And as if things aren’t exciting enough right now for Osment, it came up in our talk that his birthday was approaching in a few weeks, which he was obviously anticipating. “My mom has a surprise for me,” he says excitedly. “I don’t know what it is yet!”

For all of his maturity, confidence, levelheadedness and sharpness, it is good to see that things like pet lizards, sports and an upcoming birthday can still excite the kid in Haley Joel Osment, and that he can manage to keep his incredible success in modest perspective. “I don’t think about living up to things,” he says, looking back on his short career that many established actors would love to have. “I’m just going to continue to do what I love to do.”

 

 

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.