Magazine Article

Osment (at an L.A. shop) belives in ghost but says, "Blood doesnt scare me. Ideas like what happens after you die-that scares me"

When casting agents spotted Haley Joel Osment then 5, in the playroom of a Southern California furniture store, and offered him a Pizza Hut commercial (which led to a role as Forrest Jr in "Forrest Gump"), Haley's father also an actor, wasn't sure he wanted to play stage dad. "But all my friends were urging me to get him into it." says Micheal Eugene Osment, 34, who has had small roles in several films, "because at age 3, he was saying words like "paleontologist".
That kind of gravitas was critical to the part of Cole Sear, a child tormented by ghosts in the suprise hit "The Sixth Sense". It's star, Bruce Willis, ranks Haley "with some of the best adult actors Iv'e ever worked with." Right back at ya, says Osment,11: "I thought, cool, Bruce Willis. Then I met him, and he was so professional."

Luckily, Haley's a cheerier kid than Cole-although he works hard these days (he also starred in the Jeff Foxworthy Show, and trie to sue God in Ally McBeal). At home, with Dad, mom and sister Emily, 7, who also acts, Haley likes to shoot hoops and loves animals, particularly his mutt, Sukie. While filming, he has an one set tutor, "I want to Yale to study drama," he says. "And I want to be one of those people who swims with the dolphins."