Haley Joel Osment makes Broadway debut

updated 7:43 p.m. ET Nov. 19, 2008

NEW YORK - Hollywood can be a tough place to navigate for child stars who outgrow their roles. Once in demand, they find more doors closed than opened as attention shifts to the next It Kid.

Those less charmed than Natalie Portman and Shia LaBeouf, who’ve transitioned successfully into adult actors, grab whatever they can to stay in the industry’s Rolodex; some leave show biz altogether, while others wind up on “True Hollywood Story.”

Haley Joel Osment, who was an 11-year-old Oscar nominee for “The Sixth Sense,” switched coasts: He enrolled at New York University’s theater program to hone his craft two years ago. Now 20, he’s making extra credit of sorts — and his Broadway debut — in a revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo.”

“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,” says a giggly Osment, who is taking a semester’s leave from NYU.

Osment is one of three marquee names in the production, co-starring John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer; they portray neighborhood losers planning a heist of rare coins that goes terribly awry.

Osment’s role as Bobby — not the sharpest tool in the shed — requires the hyper-articulate actor 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.

‘A phenomenally gifted actor’
Osment, who began acting at age 4, is known for his roles as precocious, special children. He played Tom Hanks’ son in “Forrest Gump,” a robot boy in Steven Spielberg’s “Artificial Intelligence: AI” and — most famously — a little kid who communicates with ghosts in M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense.”

Osment said the latter film’s most quotable line: “I see dead people.”

Does he hear that a lot on the street?

“Not too much anymore. Hopefully, they’ll find a line from this play instead,” he says.

“American Buffalo” producer Ben Sprecher selected Osment from a short list of potential Bobbys. Says Sprecher: “I thought of him because he was an actor who had been off the radar screen, had kind of committed himself to going back to school. ... And when his name came up, he was just such an out-of-the-box choice for us, we just took the chance.”

Sprecher, surprised by the college student’s self-discipline, calls Osment “a phenomenally gifted actor. He’s instinctive, he’s smart, he asks the right questions, he takes risks.”

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Some movie stars have struggled in front of a live audience. But Osment, whose other theater experience is limited to intensive college workshops, finds the transition from screen to stage invigorating — and an essential exercise in self-improvement.

“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.”

Born and raised in California, Osment has a sunny, laid-back demeanor. Yet he is also sharp and inquisitive, and can seemingly sound off on any topic. Name it — Dick Cheney, Facebook, the media, books he’s read. He manages to seem old and young at the same time; his face has filled out, he’s gotten a bit taller, but is still recognizable by his squinty blue eyes and toothy smile.

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