It’s been 25 years since we were captivated by 10-year-old Haley Joel Osment’s chilling performance in The Sixth Sense. The famous line “I see dead people” haunted our dreams for years.
Haley Joel starred alongside Bruce Willis in the blockbuster film, while Bruce’s career was at its peak. While Bruce could have been too big of a star to worry about spending quality time with a kid, that wasn’t his style.
“He’s always going to be what a movie star is in my mind,” Haley Joel, now 36, said. “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.”
Bruce Willis Made Quite An Impression On Haley Joel Osment
He said that even though he was young and fresh, Bruce and director M. Night Shyamalan “really treated me as an equal.”
Bruce was a huge star but didn’t have a huge ego.
“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.”
Haley Joel said that Bruce’s demeanor had a big impact on him as a child and has helped mold the kind of mentor he wants to be to young actors.
Bruce, now 69, was diagnosed with aphasia in 2022 and later learned he had frontotemporal dementia. While he has lost his ability to communicate, the impact he’s had will never fade.
“I carry with me a lot of the things that I learned from Bruce into the stuff that I do today,” he said. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve had as an actor.”
This story’s featured image is by Everett Collection via Shutterstock.
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