Haley Joel Osment reveals Bruce Willis would check-in for years after ‘The Sixth Sense’
25 years ago, cinema fans were gripped by The Sixth Sense. One of the biggest films of 1999, M. Night Shyamalan’s psychological thriller starred Bruce Willis as a child psychologist alongside a then 10-year-old Haley Joel Osment. Although Osment has since moved on from the film, he regularly looks back on the experience with fond memories, particularly of working with Bruce Willis.
Throughout the 1990s, Willis became one of American cinema’s most recognisable stars, appearing in a vast range of works, from Pulp Fiction to Armageddon. His role as a psychologist in The Sixth Sense is often deemed to be one of his greatest performances, with the on-screen chemistry between Osment and Willis a particular highlight of Shyamalan’s film.
Seemingly, though, that strong bond between the characters in the film translated into real-life too. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly on the 25th anniversary of The Sixth Sense, Osment reflected, “I heard from [Bruce] a lot after it came out in those subsequent years,” explaining, “He’d leave voicemails at the house from time to time, just checking in. He would just call out of the blue.”
According to the actor, there did not necessarily need to be a reason for Willis to check-in, but he would anyway. “We went to Japan together twice, if I remember correctly,” he recalled, “to open Sixth Sense in different cities. 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.’”
Although Osment went on to say that he would still talk to Bruce Willis sporadically over the past 25 years, the pair have not connected since the news of Willis’ health problems. “I know his daughters a little bit,” the actor said, “but I have not spoken to him since the news of his health in recent years.”
Back in 2022, it was announced by Willis’ family that the Hollywood icon would be retiring from acting, as a result of developing aphasia – a condition which affects a person’s ability to understand language and communication, usually caused by head trauma or a stroke.
The following year, this condition developed into frontotemporal dementia. The latest update on his health came from Demi Moore. “Given the givens, he is in a stable place,” Moore announced. She then explained her family’s approach to the matter. “What I say to my kids is you meet them where they’re at. You don’t hold on to who they were or what you want them to be, but who they are in this moment,“ Moore said.
Willis’ film career might have come to an end, but his filmography is littered with gems that still hold up to modern rewatches, with The Sixth Sense being a prime example of this. The fact that Willis felt a need to check-in on a young Haley Joel Osment after the project had wrapped only serves to boost the already commendable reputation of the film.
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