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If
he weren't in a Manhattan hotel doing
publicity for his latest movie, where
would
Haley Joel Osment be?
"Let's
see." He checks his watch. "Three-hour
time difference between here and L.A.-I'd
be in double bio."
That's
bio as in biology class. When he's not
making blockbuster hit movies (1999's
"The Sixth Sense" grossed almost
$700 million worldwide and netted him
an Oscar nomination), Osment is a sophomore
at a Los Angeles-area private high school.
Except for being extremely famous, he's
a typical 15-year- old: playing a guitar,
running cross-country and, of course,
studying.
"Freshman
year was sort of setting us up, and this
year they're really pushing us. . . .
I'm in an American lit class where we've
been doing a lot of reading.
'The
Grapes of Wrath,' 'Native Son.' "
Then,
there's drama. Osment, who speaks quietly
and chooses his words carefully, got pretty
animated describing recent school productions
of "Guys and Dolls" and "My
Fair Lady." Who did he play? Henry
Higgins?
"Actually,
I worked technical crew. And in eighth
grade we did 'All About Eve,' and I was
part of stage production."
What?
Are there other Oscar-nominated sophomore
actors at Osment's high school? Did they
get the big roles?
He
laughs. "No, I'm the only actor there."
Clearly,
when Osment is not acting, he's not seeking
the spotlight. But then, when you've played
golf with Michael Douglas (Osment has
a 15 handicap) and celebrated your 13th
birthday by chatting up Jay Leno on "The
Tonight Show," maybe you don't really
need to star in your high school musical.
Maybe you find a little relief in being,
well, kind of a nerd.
"
No, I wouldn't go that far," Osment
says. "No pocket protectors for me."
"But
he did take his computer tower apart,"
interrupts Eugene Osment, Haley's dad.
An Alabama-born actor, he now works as
his son's acting coach.
"And
he put it back together."
"Yeah,
I took my mom's old CD burner and installed
it, but my computer's five years older
than my mom's, so it was kind of complicated,"
Haley says.
Why
all the work? Can't this kid afford a
new computer?
"He
upgraded it!" Dad says. Dad is fuming,
in a cheerful way, about a question from
another reporter earlier that day. "She
wanted to know what kind of car Haley's
buying. I don't know when it's going to
happen, but we're not rolling it off the
showroom floor. No 16-year-old should
have something like that."
There
are probably worse problems than how to
spend a child movie star's money, but
everything is relative.
Osment
is certainly well paid; he got a rumored
$1 million for 2000's "Pay It Forward"
with Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey. Didn't
Mom (a sixth-grade teacher in Los Angeles)
and Dad give him a little of it?
Hardly.
Suddenly Dad is giving us a short course
in California's Coogan Law, which puts
the state in charge of minors' movie moolah,
at least until they're of age.
"I
am nowhere near his money. The state of
California protects it. I was really surprised
that there's this misconception that I
handle his money," Eugene says. "You
get a choice-whether control of the money
should go to the child at age 18 or 21.
I made it 18 because he wants to go to
school."
Osment
has a scholarly bent; on the set of his
new movie, "Secondhand Lions,"
which opened Friday, he and co-star Michael
Caine traded historical trivia. Caine,
who has quite a few movies -and years-on
Osment, was impressed. "It's like
talking to a 45-year-old," he said
on the "Today" show. "I'm
well-known for knowing a lot of stuff,
but he knows almost as much stuff as I
do. And he's 15!"
In
"Lions," Osment shows none of
his worldliness. He's cast as an introverted
14-year-old named Walter whose flighty
mother (Kyra Sedgwick) dumps him on his
cranky, eccentric great-uncles (Caine
and Robert Duvall).
It's
a coming-of-age story set in rural Texas
in the early '60s, and Osment's patented
wide-eyed wonderment makes him a perfect
foil for his older, storied co-stars:
He's innocence to their experience.
By
casting Osment as a gullible youth, "Lions"
begs the question on his fans' minds:
Will he be able to make the tricky transition
from child star to adult actor?
"That's
the whole difficulty with this age - you
feel like an adult but you're not,"
Haley says.
What
Osment is-or used to be-is a wise child.
"A 40-year-old midget," Spacey
once called him.
"The
thing about Haley, you see, he's not a
child actor. He's an actor who happens
to be a child," Caine said.
When
he looks in the mirror, does Osment, whose
voice has changed but who's not yet reached
his full height, see a boy or a man?
"Somewhere
in between," he says. "Which
is good, because I could still play poor,
pathetic Walter."
So
far, Osment's most romantic onscreen moment
has been in Steven Spielberg's dark, futuristic
fable "A.I." As the nonhuman
David Swinton, Osment had some heartbreakingly
sad scenes ... with his mother. When's
he going to get the girl or at least a
kiss?
"Actually,
his first screen kiss was in 'Edges of
the Lord [a Holocaust drama released in
Europe but not yet in the United States],"
Eugene says. "He had a quick lip-touching
scene with a nice Polish girl. But no
making out."
If
Osment regrets this lack of celluloid
experience, he isn't letting on. "That's
the thing you want most," he says
of making the transition to adult actor.
"But it's going to be difficult for
people to see you as an 18-year-old when
they have already seen you as a 13-year-old.
A movie freezes things, and that's good,
but you've got to move on from that."
But
not too fast. "The thing that makes
Haley such an open actor is that he's
so innocent," Eugene says.
Are
you innocent, Haley?
The
budding adult grins. "There's a difference
in innocence and naivete. And I'm not
naive. My mom said once, oh, you want
to keep some sky in your head. But it's
not like I'm going to stay ignorant forever."
Would
he ever, one day, way down the road, consider
doing a nude scene?
Silence,
broken by Dad, "That look on Haley's
face is, 'How do I say no without seeming
to criticize all the people who have done
nude scenes?'"
If
Haley was sorry his dad had jumped in
to answer the question, he is far too
good an actor to let it show.
HIS
PERSONAL FAVORITES
Ask
Haley Joel Osment to name his favorite
movies, and you quickly realize film is
a family project in the Osment household.
Dad
Eugene, an actor himself, has been showing
Haley and his younger sister, Emily, selected
classics for years. Haley's list includes
movies he's studied, personal picks and
movies he's not allowed to watch yet.
Alien
(1979) and its sequel, Aliens (1986),
were part of a tutorial in horror for
Osment when he was preparing to star in
"The Sixth Sense." "My
dad and I went into a vein of movies that
asked, 'What is fear?' 'Alien II' is a
lot of fun, but 'Alien' is the best."
Ditto
Fire in the Sky (1993), with James Garner
and D.B. Sweeney. "The last 10 minutes
are the scariest thing you'll ever see."
City
Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936).
"My sister loves Charlie Chaplin
and I watched these with her."
Bowling
for Columbine (2002). "It's just
the way I see film as being important.
It's not exploding squibs and shocking
people in the theater."
Finally,
movies Haley would like to see:
Saving
Private Ryan (1998), Pulp Fiction (1994)
and Reservoir Dogs (1992). His dad wants
him to see "Ryan" on a big screen,
not on video.
And
the other two are just too violent and
edgy for Dad to approve - yet.
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