Actor Haley Joel Osment Explains Why He Took a Break From Hollywood Despite Early Childhood Success

Haley Joel Osment attends the Los Angeles premiere of Prime Video's "Somebody I Used to Know" in Culver City, Calif., on Feb. 1, 2023. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

“Sixth Sense” star and former child actor Haley Joel Osment is returning to life in Hollywood after a 15-year hiatus.

In an interview with E! News published on Aug. 18, the 36-year-old said he took the extended break from Los Angeles due to the intense tabloid culture in Hollywood.

“Those were pretty tense years [as a young actor] ... in Los Angeles,” Osment recalled. At the time, there was “this very predatory, aggressive kind of tabloid engagement with certain celebrities.”

In 2006, Osment moved to New York City and enrolled at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and felt relieved to relocate.

Prior to his big move that same year, the actor had his own brush with the law, being charged with a DUI after crashing his car just outside his hometown. He was sentenced to probation after pleading no contest to charges of drunken driving and marijuana possession.

At just 11 years old, Osment earned an Oscar nomination for his role in the 1999 thriller “The Sixth Sense” and starred in several other projects.

Despite his early success, Osment said he never felt pressured to pursue his acting career but rather, with the support of his parents, contemplated if it was really what he wanted to do.

“My parents used to say when I first started out in this industry, ‘If it’s ever not fun, you can quit tomorrow,’” said Osment. “And when I got to be college age, I got to go off and study theater and really think hard about whether I wanted to do this as my career in life.”

He continued: “The answer has always been yes at all these junctures. ... It’s still a job that I really enjoy, despite all the uncertainty and the difficulty of being able to plan your life three to six months out.”

Osment got his first major movie role at just age 5, after starring as Forrest Junior in the 1994 Oscar-winning film “Forrest Gump.”

He also appeared in “Secondhand Lions” with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” with Jude Law, and “Home of the Giants.”

Osment comes from a family of entertainers, with both parents involved in the theater and little sister Emily joining him in the acting business.

The actress, best known for her role in the CBS show “Young Sheldon,” stayed in Hollywood after landing her big gig on the Disney channel show “Hannah Montana.”

Since moving back, Osment told E! News his hometown has calmed down regarding the paparazzi, calling the times we’re in now a “different era.”

The actor does not regret moving and taking time away from the entertainment industry while at university, and as someone who values privacy, Osment credits social media for turning the tide.

“When I came up in this industry, the internet was around, but it wasn’t so omnipresent that it is today,” he said, mentioning he was impressed with younger actors being able to manage the social media landscape.

After resisting for so long, Osment said he has enjoyed being able to control what to put online.

“It’s fun to do some posts,” he said. “In this very large media environment, it’s the way to promote your projects and help people keep up to date on what you’re doing within the balance of reasonable privacy.”

Osment will be starring alongside Channing Tatum in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut film “Blink Twice,” which is set to hit theaters on Aug. 23.