“Sixth Sense” Child Actor Haley Joel Osment’s Broadway Debut (Photos)

Child star Haley Joel Osment was nominated for an Oscar at 11 years of age for “The Sixth Sense” and is also well-remembered for his role in “Pay It Forward”. Osment later enrolled in the theater program at New York University. Now Osment is making his Broadway debut in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo”.

We all know Haley Joel Osment was a talented child actor, but how will Osment fare on Broadway?

“I don’t know if it’s going to count credit-wise for anything, but certainly the experience is in line with what I went there to study,” Osment says.

Osment joins John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer, as they play neighborhood losers planning to heist rare coins.

Osment’s role is to play Bobby, and he has to play dumb.

“It’s a tough preparation because in many ways, it’s emptying out things that you have coming in as an actor,” says Osment in an interview at a restaurant near the Belasco Theatre, where “American Buffalo” is playing.

“He’s a totally uneducated street kid who’s lived his whole life sort of scrapping by day by day. So you know, you have to sort of get yourself into the mind-set of lowering yourself to that simplicity in that character, and having an understanding of his history and the abuse that he suffered,” he says.

Haley Joel Osment began acting at the age of 4. He played Tom Hanks’ son in “Forrest Gump,” a robot boy in Steven Spielberg’s “Artificial Intelligence: AI” and last but not least, the boy that sees “dead people” in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense.”

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Some movie stars find the switch to Broadway a bit tough. But Osment is ready.

“There’s so much to learn about acting and performance in general. … I mean, acting is a very complex art, and there are a lot more theories and methods and techniques to it than I think anybody would think. … Some of our best respected film and stage performances come from people like (Marlon) Brando and everything, and they studied their entire lives,” says Osment, whose past TV work include the sitcoms “Thunder Alley” and “The Jeff Foxworthy Show.”

Haley Joel Osment also has a sister, Emily Osment, that you may have seen on the Hannah Montana show.

As a former child actor, do you think Haley Joel Osmont will make the transition to Broadway easily?

Images: WENN

Source: news

Posted by: Monya

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