One hang-up that a lot of people seem to have is that they love to look at a person like Haley Joel Osment and exclaim over how cute he was as a kid and how he kind of grew up to be a hairy-chinned adult overnight. But the truth is that Haley is still just as talented as he was, though the stigma of having been a child actor is something that tends to follow some people even when they’ve gone out of their way to show that they can grow and evolve when it comes to show business. There’s no doubt that he can still perform and that he still loves to do it, but it’s fair to state that we haven’t seen a lot of him in the same capacity as we did when he was younger. Haley has done his best to stay positive and motivated when it comes to show business and he’s done a fair amount behind the scenes as well.
Here are a few other things you might not have known about Haley.
10. He auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker.
This was back when The Phantom Menace was still mostly rumor and gossip. He tried to get the part of the main character that could have likely elevated his career just a little more. But it sounds like he never got a call back. As a kid this could have possibly worked for him, as Jake Lloyd wasn’t horrible but according to a lot of fans he wasn’t great either.
9. Haley absolutely loves lizards.
He has a couple of his own at home and enjoys catching and releasing them as a hobby. This might creep some people out since lizards are to some folks rather odd and even kind of disgusting, but they’re actually pretty interesting when you really look at them.
8. His acting career started at age 4.
As you might already know a lot of his career is bound up in his younger years and has been for quite a while. Whether he’s ever going to grow past that opinion or not is hard to say, but it sounds as though he’s comfortable with where he started and where he’s at right now.
7. The amount of screen time he had in Forrest Gump only came to 2 minutes.
That makes sense considering that he didn’t come in until the end of the movie and wasn’t on screen the whole time. The most he saw was during his interactions with Robin Wright and Tom Hanks, though if you’ll notice not much of that time was spent with both of them at the same time.
6. After doing AI he took a two-year break from making movies.
He wasn’t idle in that time as he was doing promotional work for AI, which wasn’t lauded as a great movie by some but was still a touching tale since it explored a good number of thematic elements that have been seen in many movies throughout history concerning humanity and what it means to be real.
5. He was against the idea of the Harry Potter films being made.
There was a rumor that he was wanted as one of the main characters but he debunked it quickly and even stated that he didn’t see any good in making the movies since he believed that it would take a lot of magic out of them.
4. In 2006 he sustained a few serious injuries after an accidental car crash.
He was pretty busted up when he crashed his car but made a full recovery thankfully. The details are kind of sketchy since the whole incident was kind of there and gone and even kind of glossed over as though it was something worth a mention and not much else.
3. His love for acting comes from his father.
Haley looked up to his father when it came to acting and took a lot of love for the craft from the time he recalled seeing his dad on stage. To this day he’s still very much in love with the craft and is doing whatever he can to make sure that he continues to move forward.
2. He does what he can to keep himself from getting a big head.
Admittedly some actors do in fact come to the point when they think that they’re untouchable and can do no wrong since they’ve produced some memorable and very epic roles. But this is usually when a good number of them start going downhill since they believe their own hype. Haley has stayed fairly low-key in an attempt to keep from stoking his ego.
1. Haley is the kind of guy that would choose his friends over his career.
There are a lot of people that might say this but the conviction he seems to have is something that seems as though he’s telling the absolute truth.
He’s still very involved in his own career, but in a way that’s kind of different from many others.
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