After 25 years, Haley Joel Osment is fondly remembering his on-set expertise with Bruce Willis.
The Oscar nominee lately mirrored on his “improbable” time as a baby actor working with Willis on the M. Night Shyamalan film The Sixth Sense (1999) and the way their behind-the-scenes friendship endured over time.
“I heard from [Bruce] loads after it got here out in these subsequent years,” he informed Entertainment Weekly. “He’d go away voicemails on the home occasionally, simply checking in. He would simply name out of the blue, so generally it was within the lead up earlier than journey. We went to Japan collectively twice, if I keep in mind accurately, to open Sixth Sense in numerous cities. So he would name forward of that, after which generally I’d simply come dwelling from college and the answering machine could be blinking and it’d be him going like, ‘Hey, Haley Joel. Simply saying hello.’
“I want to search out these previous answering tapes. I do know we preserved these. I do know his daughters a little bit bit, however I’ve not spoken to him for the reason that information of his well being in recent times,” added Osment.
In 2022, Willis’ household announced his retirement after he was identified with aphasia, which progressed to frontotemporal demential the subsequent yr.
Haley Joel Osmont and Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense (1999). (Buena Vista/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
In The Sixth Sense, Willis performs little one psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, who tries to assist younger Cole Sear (Osment) as he’s visited by ghosts. The movie earned six Oscar nominations, together with Greatest Image and Greatest Supporting Actor for Osment.
“I had labored with Tom Hanks earlier than on Forrest Gump and different large identify actors, however at that time I used to be sufficiently old to have seen a whole lot of Bruce’s motion pictures, which added a whole lot of pleasure to it,” he recalled. “And that’s one thing that lasts your whole profession, the place you get to work with individuals who you’ve loved watching in different issues. And it made an enormous impression on me as a result of that was the primary gigantic superstar that I’d labored with at an age the place I used to be conscious of his stardom.”
Osment continued, “He did all the pieces in such a cool means, and had such charisma, and was the individual that you really want on set setting the tone for the form of film we had been making, as a result of issues normally revolve across the No. 1 on the decision sheet. It was a script that all of us cared about a lot and put a lot effort into, and Bruce led the way in which on that.”
