Haley Joel Osment Reveals Sweet Way Bruce Willis Kept In Touch After ‘The Sixth Sense’

Haley Joel Osment revealed that he heard from Bruce Willis “a lot” as his co-star would call his house just to check-in during the years after the 1999 release of “The Sixth Sense.”

The actor reflected on the voicemails Willis left from “time to time” as he spoke to Entertainment Weekly in honor of the M. Night Shyamalan horror film’s 25th anniversary.

“He would just call out of the blue, so sometimes it was in the lead up before travel,” said Osment, who added that they went to Japan together twice to open “The Sixth Sense” in different cities.

Osment continued, “So he would call ahead of that, and then sometimes I would just come home from school and the answering machine would be blinking and it’d be him going like, ‘Hey, Haley Joel. Just saying hi.’”

Osment, whose performance as Cole Sear earned him both an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nomination, described working with Willis as “fantastic.”

Osment, who was 10-years-old when “The Sixth Sense” was shot, said he was “old enough to have seen a lot” of Willis’ films so there was a lot of excitement around working together.

“And that’s something that lasts your entire career, where you get to work with people who you’ve enjoyed watching in other things,” Osment said.

“And it made a huge impression on me because that was the first gigantic celebrity that I’d worked with at an age where I was aware of his stardom.”

He later said Willis “did everything in such a cool way” and “had such charisma” so he wanted to have him on set in order to set the tone.

Osment told EW that he needed to find his old answering machine tapes and noted that he hasn’t spoken to Willis since news broke of his health battles in recent years.

Willis retired from acting back in 2022 after being diagnosed with aphasia.

His family later announced that his condition progressed to frontotemporal dementia, which can result in trouble communicating, unusual behaviors and emotional problems, according to the National Institute of Aging.

Osment, at the premiere of “Blink Twice” last month, shared well wishes to Willis and showed love to his “wonderful” family for being “courageous” in giving updates about him.

“And I just feel grateful to have known him and got to work with him because he’s a wonderful, larger-than-life person,” Osment told Access Hollywood’s Zuri Hall.