At 11, Osment has sixth
sense about acting
By Elizabeth Snead, USA Today
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood's let's-do-lunch bunch, schmoozing on the prestigious patio of
The Ivy, pays zero attention to the well-scrubbed, freckle-faced lad in pressed khakis and
a brown striped shirt.
That will change soon.
Critics are raving over Haley Joel Osment's starring role in the weekend's surprise box
office winner, The Sixth Sense, a psychological horror film.
"I see dead people," the trembling boy finally whispers to his therapist (Bruce
Willis), his haunted blue eyes filling with tears.
"Osment gives one of the decade's great child-actor performances," USA TODAY's
Mike Clark says. "If he were to get an Oscar nomination, it would be both historic
and just," Newsday's John Anderson says.
Sense is Osment's most demanding role since he began doing commercials at age 5. It
was a Pizza Hut ad that caught the attention of producer Robert Zemeckis, who cast him as
Tom Hanks' son in Forrest Gump.
Now, at the ripe age of 11, Osment already has shared the big screen with Whoopi Goldberg
in Bogus. On TV, he played Candice Bergen's son on Murphy Brown and was
cast as a dying boy who wanted to sue God in a recent episode of Ally McBeal.
Do girls at his Glendale, Calif., elementary school pay more attention now that he's a big
movie star?
"Sometimes," Osment says, slightly sheepishly. "Mostly the older
girls."
The older girls?
"Yeah. Last year, it was the sixth-graders."
This is an unnervingly self-possessed and extremely polite child. He graciously gives
credit for his good table manners to his mother, Theresa, a schoolteacher. His dad,
Eugene, also is in show business.
"My dad is a really good actor, and I guess it has rubbed off," Osment says.
"My mom is very supportive, and so is my sister (Emily, 7, who also acts). I couldn't
have done it without any of them."
Dad, seen with his son in two TV movies, Ransom of Red Chief and Last Stand
at Saber River, travels with Haley, serving as adviser, coach and protector.
"I'd like him to do just one film a year," the older Osment says. "You can
peak too soon ."
Off duty, young Osment is an avid reader, favoring science fiction. He's writing his own Star
Wars script, his dad says. He watches the History and Discovery channels, plays golf,
is addicted to basketball and cares for Amazon frogs and gecko lizards.
But when Osment discusses the emotional demands of his craft, it's evident he's a
natural-born actor.
"It's hard to act terrified because you have 200 crew members around," Osment
says of his role in Sense. "At first, you have to get scared, and then you
have to do it repeatedly and each time make it new and ignore the camera following
you."
Sense writer/director M. Night Shyamalan recalls the scene in which Osment enters
the kitchen, terrified and quivering. "I kept hearing this loud thumping before I
yelled 'Action!' and after a few takes I realized it was Haley literally throwing himself
against the walls to shake himself up," Shyamalan says in amazement.
Osment is matter-of-fact about his technique. "I was just hunching up a little bit
and throwing myself into a state of fear, slamming into the walls a little bit."
What has he learned from acting? "Being different personalities all the time brings
out some of the personalities that you have, too. So I guess I have become a more
well-rounded person."
Staying well rounded is important to his parents . "If there is one thing I want
people to know about Haley, it's that he's completely normal," his dad says.
"But I'm cautious about how this should be handled. You won't ever see him on the
cover of Teen Beat. I'd even be hesitant to have his face on the cover of Premiere."
Unless maybe it's a photo of him holding an Oscar. |
