Entourage: Haley Joel Osment Warns Of Child Star Pitfalls

Haley Joel Osment, the cute little moppet who shot to fame as the kid who saw dead people in ‘The Sixth Sense’ and the child robot in ‘AI’, is now 27 and he’s back in cinemas this week in ‘Entourage’.

As a youngster he was one of the most in-demand child stars in Hollywood, so we wanted to know what his advice would be for current and future child actors and he issued a warning.

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“For me it was always just [about] focussing on the work and that being the most important thing,” Osment tells Yahoo Movies in our interview above.

“Because there are lots of ancillary factors in working in this town. The show [’Entourage’] touches on that. There are certain trappings that surround it.

“If the work is what you’re most excited about doing, there’s no guarantee of success, but at least you’ll be in the right head space for all of it and you won’t get carried away.”

After winning a competition to star in a Pizza Hut commercial aged just 4, Osment’s acting career launched with a role in TV sitcom ‘Thunder Alley’. The big screen beckoned and he made his movie debut in 1994′s ‘Forrest Gump’ as Forrest’s son, but it was his role in ‘The Sixth Sense’ that sent his career stratospheric, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the process.

Above: Billy Bob Thornton and Haley Joel Osment in ‘Entourage’

His role as the child robot who yearns to be a real boy in Steven Spielberg’s ‘A.I.’ proved to be his last major part as a child star, but he was still linked with some huge movies at the time.

Watch the video above to hear how close he got to playing Anakin Skywalker and Harry Potter.

‘Entourage’, based on the hit TV series, is coming to cinemas on 19 June. Watch our interview with the cast where they reveal how close the show is to real life below.

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Image credits: Warner Bros./Buena Vista