|
At
15 years of age, Haley Joel Osment has
more than just acting on the mind: “I
got my license permit early this summer
and when I turn 16 years old next April,
hopefully I’ll get my license,”
he says at a press day in New York City.
As for the kind of car Haley hopes to
drive to high school, he admits, “Every
kid my age would want a Porsche or something
but that’s not exactly realistic.”
As
Haley goes on to name some of his favorite
music bands, including R.E.M., Coldplay,
and Radiohead, it’s clear that this
child actor is maintaining some sort of
humility in his life. Haley started out
at an early age, starring in TV roles
as a young child in “The Jeff Foxworthy
Show” and a show that I have to admit
was one of my favorites in junior high,
“Thunder Alley.” He went on
to do his first major film with Tom Hanks
in “Forrest Gump” but really
took audiences by surprise in M. Night
Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense,”
to which he earned an Academy Award-nomination.
His next major projects included “Pay
it Forward” with Kevin Spacey and
Helen Hunt, and the mega-production “A.I.”
by Steven Spielberg.
Haley
stars in “Secondhand Lions”
this Friday. He plays a 14-year-old boy
named Walter who is left by his mother
(Kyra Sedgwick) on the farm of two uncles,
Hub (Robert Duvall) and Garth (Michael
Caine). Walter barely knows his uncles
and initially, his uncles seem to not
care about his stay. But over the course
of the summer, Walter develops an earnest
respect for his uncles, as he slowly learns
what it takes to become a man.
Haley
graces his presence at a press day for
the movie in New York City and below is
what he had to tell us about the film,
working with Robert Duvall and Michael
Caine, and the maturity of both himself
and his roles.
Compared
to all of the other films you’ve
done, was this one more inspiring?
It
was very different. Every film should
be different, the experience as well as
the characters you’re playing. Shooting
in Texas with Tim [McCanlies], we just
had a comfortable environment on the set
where you really knew everybody really
well. Having Michael and Robert there,
of course, changed things too. Learning
different things from them than you would
from other actors. So yeah, it was a great
experience.
You
shot this film down in Texas with two
of the most amazing actors. Did you hang
out with them on set?
Much
like Hub and Garth, they would sit in
the directors’ chairs and tell stories
all the time when we had a camera break.
I would always try to be near that and
hear what they had to say because they
have some incredible stories. I don’t
think a lot of people know that Michael
fought in the Korean War. That was something
really similar to his character with his
war experience and battles, and Michael
had gone through that. It was a personal
experience that related to his character
and also very interesting to hear about.
In
the film, Hub (Robert Duvall) says that
“Just because something isn’t
true, there’s no reason to not believe
in it.” Do you agree with this ideology?
Oh
yeah. Believing in things is more important
than factuality. If you doubted everything,
or looked at everything simply for the
facts, you wouldn’t have any passion
about living. It’s all about your
ideals and what you think is important.
It’s not always about what the facts
are.
You
have some scenes with a real lion. How
much time did you get to spend with it?
It
was around the set really frequently but
the producers weren’t too excited
about me jumping into the cage with it
as much as I wanted to. I figured I was
the one of the least afraid of that thing
on the set, but still they were kind of
worried.
But
were you afraid at the beginning?
No.
The way it acted – you just sort
of forgot that it was a dangerous animal,
I guess. (Laughs) It just acted like a
kitten.
You’re
great with drawing emotions of the audience.
In other words, you can make people cry.
What is the secret behind pulling that
off and being believable?
The
job of the actor is that if you want to
take people to the emotional levels that
your character is in the film, you have
to make sure you connect with them and
make sure they sympathize with you. They
want good things to happen to you as the
film goes on. Whatever experience brings
the character to that emotional level,
I think the audience should be with them
there, thus going through the same experience.
Can
you do a role that you can’t connect
to?
You
have to be able to connect at some point.
Some characters will be more difficult
to relate to than others because of emotional
stress or challenges that the characters
go through. Like for instance, with “A.I.,”
that’s a character that’s hard
to find any kind of experience you can
relate to. It’s all through imagination.
Even if you can’t find any personal
experience, you have to imagine it at
least. If you’re not sympathetic
as a character, it won’t be believable.
You’ve
managed to stay really grounded at a really
young age. You don’t read about the
problems that other child actors tend
to have. How do you do that?
It’s
all about having a good family base. In
this business, that’s really important
to have. It helps you concentrate more
on the acting and not get carried away
with all the outlying factors. They’re
always going to be there, for any actor.
It’s just whether you choose to pay
attention to them or not.
When
you were younger, we knew what we would
be seeing on screen, but as you get older,
and your voice changes and you become
more of a man, it’s harder for us
to know. Is age becoming a factor with
some of the roles you’re looking
into now?
Age
is definitely a factor because at this
age, you’re very age specific. As
a younger kid, you can play a wider variety
of ages. As a younger kid you can play
a wider variety of ages I guess, because
the voice hasn’t changed and there’s
a physicality that progresses as you get
older. Now you can’t play a 17-year-old
when you’re a 15-year-old, whereas
when you’re ten you can play 8 or
even 12. The good part is that, especially
with this movie, the changes that I am
going through are within the context of
the film. So people pretty much know where
I am, age-wise, at this point, and that
was one of the great things about this
film. It demonstrates that that’s
the direction I’m going in.
|
