Haley Joel Osment Talks ‘Sixth Sense’ 25th Anniversary, Bruce Willis ‘Very Close’ to His Heart (Exclusive)

Haley Joel Osment is celebrating a major milestone this week as The Sixth Sense turns 25. 

The 36-year-old actor scored his breakthrough role opposite Bruce Willis in M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 psychological thriller, earning nominations at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Osment was 11 at the time. 

Speaking with ET’s Cassie DiLaura at the red carpet premiere of his latest film, Blink Twice, Osment said it somehow feels like “both” yesterday and more than two decades since The Sixth Sense thrust him into the spotlight. 

“My memory of it is so strong,” he shared. “It was such a challenging role and another intense experience.” 

Osment added that he remembers “the day-to-day” of filming quite well, as well as the immediate aftermath of its Aug. 6, 1999, release. 

“I remember me and my dad going to a newsstand the weekend it came out to check the newspaper to see what the numbers were,” he recalled. “So it’s a different time.” 

The anniversary comes amid a difficult season for Willis, who is battling frontotemporal dementia. 

Asked how he keeps Willis close to his heart today, Osment had no shortage of kind words for his former co-star. 

“Oh, very close,” Osment replied. “It was so wonderful working with him and, I mean, I was so grateful to have had that experience and to meet this guy who was the epitome of a movie star and a really nice person.” 

In Blink Twice, Osment stars opposite Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Geena Davis, Adria Arjona and Kyle MacLachlan. The film was written by Zoë Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, and marks Kravitz’s directorial debut. 

The thriller is led by Ackie as Frida, a cocktail waitress tired of being overlooked who gets invited to billionaire tech mogul Slater King’s (Tatum) private island for what seems like a nonstop luxurious party. King is notorious for throwing long, lavish parties on his private island and Frida drags along her friend, Jess (Shawkat), to join in on the lavish festivities.

But Frida soon finds out that paradise isn’t all that it seems after Jess goes missing, and none of the other partying vacationers seem to care — or even remember that Jess was there despite meeting her days earlier. The dark drama soon becomes a literal fight for survival.

“It’s an intense thrill ride of a movie, but Zoë just put together a wonderful team,” Osment gushed on Thursday at the at DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles. “It felt like a great unit and we lived on the location for the most part, so we got to spend a lot of time with each other, too.”

Blink Twice hits theaters Aug. 23.

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