Haley Joel Osment Reveals the 'Inspiring' Lesson He Got fromSixth SenseCostar Bruce Willis (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Haley Joel Osment (left) and Bruce Willis (right).Photo:Rodin Eckenroth/Getty; Matt Carr/Getty

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty; Matt Carr/Getty

WhenHaley Joel Osmentfilmed the 1999 thrillerThe Sixth Sense, he was a largely unknown child actor who’d had smaller roles in films likeForrest Gump. His costar,Bruce Willis, was a global superstar with hits likeDie HardandArmageddonunder his belt.

However, Willis saw Osment as a peer.

“He’s always going to be what a movie star is in my mind,” Osment, now 36, tells PEOPLE. “And having that charisma and gravitas, and being able to come onto a set and to work with a 10-year-old, and to be really generous with his time — I got very lucky.”

He says Willis, 69, never behaved in a condescending way — and both Willis and directorM. Night Shyamalan“really treated me as an equal,” he recalls.

“To see someone like Bruce do that, that’s really been inspiring to me. That whatever position you have in the industry, everybody is on the same page,” adds Osment.

“I carry with me a lot of the things that I learned from Bruce into the stuff that I do today,” he says. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve had as an actor.”

Willis has stayed out of the public eye since 2022, when his family disclosed he was diagnosed with aphasia. A year later, they said his condition had progressed, and he received a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.

Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis in ‘The Sixth Sense.'.Getty

Getty

Osment — who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in the supernatural mystery about a boy who utters the famous phrase, “I see dead people” — has had a prolific career sinceThe Sixth Sensemade a splash 25 years ago.

He went on to star in movies likeSteven Spielberg’s 2001 sci-fi movieA.I. Artificial Intelligenceand shows likeSilicon Valleyand theupcoming season of the Netflix seriesWednesday.

The movie has some major surprises — and Osment says working onThe Sixth Sense, which has one of the biggest twists in modern movie history, helped him understand the notion of spoilers.

“I think we knew not to give away the ending, but there wasn’t a lot of heat around it, like this was some secret we had to protect,” he says. “It was just in the normal course of, ‘It’s a thriller. We don’t want to tell people what happened in the end.’ ”

Haley Joel Osment at the Aug. 8 ‘Blink Twice’ premiere.Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

“When the movie took off beyond our wildest expectations, that was one of the first times I remember having an experience of there being a spoiler that needed to be protected,” he says. “So yeah, I think I have a long tradition of not revealing things.”

Indeed, he’s tight-lipped when it comes toWednesday, the series starringJenna Ortegaas the moody Addams Family daughter.

Haley Joel Osment in ‘Blink Twice.'.Amazon MGM Studios/YouTube

Amazon MGM Studios/YouTube

“I am legally prohibited from saying anything,” says Osment. “I love getting these periodic emails that Netflix sends. It’s like, ‘Just a reminder, be careful where you’re taking pictures with your phone,’ and all these things. It’s very, very secretive. But it’s going to be an amazing season.”

After that, Osment says he’d like to transition from acting into directing, like Kravitz. “That is the biggest thing at the top of my list right now, is to move into getting behind the camera,” he says. “Watching Zoë do what she did so successfully — it was very, very inspiring.”

Blink Twiceis in theaters Aug. 23.

source: people.com