The actor who appeared opposite Bruce Willis in the 1999 thriller The Sixth Sense when he was just 10 years old says he still keeps in touch with his older co-star’s family amid Willis’ battle with dementia.
Haley Joel Osment shot to global fame when he featured in the hit film, which also starred Toni Collette.
On Thursday, the now 36-year-old actor appeared on The Morning Show, looking back on the role, in which he portrayed Cole Sear, a boy who can see and talk to dead people.
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“It was such an honour and a privilege to work with Toni,” Osment said.
“I was 10 when I made that movie, and I think she was only 25 or 26 years old, playing this incredibly intense and complex role.”
Reflecting on the famous car scene, during which Cole explains to his onscreen mother that he speaks to his dead grandmother, Osment said it had been a challenge.
“Us in the car was one of the most challenging acting experiences of my life,” he said.
“It’s a very complex scene that the two of us had. It’s a really fond memory.”
He said he still kept in touch with Bruce Willis’ family amid the older star’s battle with dementia.
“I know his daughters, and I know that, in spite of everything they’re going through, he really has a really wonderful community around him,” Osment said of Willis.
“I feel very lucky that I got to work with him … I think Bruce is always going to epitomise what a movie star really is in my mind.”
Osment has appeared in 1994’s Forrest Grump, 2000’s Pay It Forward and 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence and has forged a solid film and TV career as an adult.
He is currently starring alongside Channing Tatum in the Zoe Kravitz-directed psychological thriller Blink Twice and gave away a few secrets.
“Channing Tatum plays a Slater King, who is a tech titan who has had a run-in with the media, and he’s trying to sort of reset his public image,” Osment said.
“He meets these two women at a party and invites them back to his private island. That’s when the rug gets pulled out from underneath the audience and the participants in the film.”
Osment said he enjoyed working with Kravitz, the daughter of rocker Lenny and actress Lisa Bonet, on her directorial debut.
“It was a wonderful experience making it with Zoe Kravitz. We all just kind of lived in the jungle on the Yucatan Peninsula (in Mexico) for about two months together.”