10 Shocking Ways Actors Were Cast That You Didn't Know About

10. Haley Joel Osment Was Captured In Ikea By Two Casting Directors - Forrest Gump

In a move that was likely as unsettling then as it is when viewed through a 2022 lens today, the creepy way a young Haley Joel Osment was introduced to the world of acting is questionable to say the least.

As the eventual The Sixth Sense star would recall to Vulture a few years back, during a trip to Burbank's local IKEA, Osment just so happened to walk past a random casting table with two women sat behind it who were "taking Polaroids of all the kids who would come into the store."

Not disturbing at all.

Later down the road, however, said taking of Osment's picture opened the door for a Pizza Hut commercial which eventually wiggled onto the radar of the casting director for the upcoming Forrest Gump feature around that time. And, as the child sensation would explain, "just from that commercial, the casting director for Forrest Gump got in contact with us and I was reading with (director Robert) Zemeckis and Tom Hanks pretty soon after that."

It may have all worked out in the end. But there's no doubting that Osment's rise to superstardom got off to a bit of a dodgy start in the Swedish furniture store.