Haley Joel Osment opened up about his long hiatus from acting and returning to Hollywood after 15 years.
The 36-year-old actor, who was a child star, got candid about why he decided to take a break in the first place and reflected on finding fame at an early age.
Up next, he will be starring in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut film, Blink Twice, but before then, he found fame after starring in the 1999 psychological thriller film The Sixth Sense opposite Bruce Willis — and even showed support for his former co-star when he decided to step back from acting.
After earning an Oscar nomination at just age 11 and starring in a number of notable projects, he decided to take a break from acting and moved to New York City to attend college at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2006.
Osment told E! News on Sunday: ‘My parents used to say when I first started out in this industry, “If it’s ever not fun, you can quit tomorrow.”
Haley Joel Osment opened up about his long hiatus from acting and returning to Hollywood after 15 years; seen on August 8
‘And when I got to be college age, I got to go off and study theater and really think hard about whether I wanted to do this as my career in life,’ he recalled.
‘The answer has always been yes at all these junctures,’ Osment continued before noting that he made the choices even though he has always been passionate about acting.
‘It’s still a job that I really enjoy, despite all the uncertainty and the difficulty of being able to plan your life three to six months out,’ he explained.
Osment — who was five when he made his big-screen debut in 1994’s Forrest Gump — also recalled the landscape of Hollywood when he was making the decision to take a break and enroll in college.
‘Those were pretty tense years in terms of how celebrity was in Los Angeles,’ he said.
He noted that he saw that there was ‘this very predatory, aggressive kind of tabloid engagement with certain celebrities.’
‘I remember being very happy to not be making my home in Los Angeles at that time,’ he added.
In 2006, he was also sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to charges of drunken driving and marijuana possession.
Around the same time, his younger sister Emily Osment also landed her big role on Hannah Montana, he was leaving Hollywood to go to school in New York City.
The 36-year-old actor, who was a child star, got candid about why he decided to take a break in the first place and reflected on finding fame at an early age; seen in February 2023
Up next, he will be starring in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut film, Blink Twice, but before then, he found fame after starring in the 1999 psychological thriller film The Sixth Sense opposite Bruce Willis — and even showed support for his former co-star when he decided to step back from acting
Osment said he noticed a change in Hollywood after he returned, however.
He noted that his hometown of Los Angeles has ‘mellowed out a bit’ as far as the paparazzi culture he previously witnessed as a teenager.
‘We’re in a different era than we were,’ he said.
‘It’s an interesting shift in dynamics,’ he said about navigating social media as a public figure who also prioritized his privacy.
After finally making an Instagram to counter the fake accounts claiming to be him, he admitted it took him ‘a long time to figure out how to navigate social media’ and credited content that is ‘willingly posted online.’
‘At this point, I’m comfortable with it,’ Osment said. ‘In this very large media environment, it’s the way to promote your projects and help people keep up to date on what you’re doing within the balance of reasonable privacy. I resisted it for so long and now it’s like, “Hey, it’s fun to do some posts.”
He also praised how younger actors are navigating fame in an era where social media permeates and is pervasive.
‘When I came up in this industry, the Internet was around but it wasn’t so omnipresent that it is today,’ he said. ‘So for younger actors today, I’m always really impressed with them being able to manage the social media landscape, because that’s not something I ever really had to deal with at that age.’
After earning an Oscar nomination at just age 11 and starring in a number of notable projects, he decided to take a break from acting and moved to New York City to attend college at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2006; seen in August 2003
He noted that he saw that there was ‘this very predatory, aggressive kind of tabloid engagement with certain celebrities’; seen in August 2011
Osment said he noticed a change in Hollywood after he returned, however. He noted that his hometown of Los Angeles has ‘mellowed out a bit’ as far as the paparazzi culture he previously witnessed as a teenager; seen in May 2019
Osment will next be appearing in Blink Twice and starring opposite leading stars Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut. Blink Twice premieres in theaters on Friday, August 23; seen on February 20
Osment will next be appearing in Blink Twice and starring opposite leading stars Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut.
In the upcoming thriller flick, he portrays Tom, a morally pliable struggling actor — characters he said he hasn’t had ‘too many interactions’ with in real life — a guy who’s ‘sort of pathetic’ but trying to ‘be a better man and optimize his life.’
Blink Twice follows cocktail actress Frida (Ackie), who meets tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) at his fundraising gala.
During their encounter, he invites her to join him and his friends for a hedonistic getaway on his private island.
According to the logline, wild nights soon blend into sun-soaked days. However, when strange things start to happen, Frida must uncover the truth if she hopes to make it out alive.
The star-studded cast also includes Adria Arjona, Alia Shawkat, Levon Hawke, Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Liz Caribal, Geena Davis, Trew Mullen and many others.
Blink Twice premieres in theaters on Friday, August 23.
