20 Things You Didn't Know About The Sixth Sense

19. The Reason That Haley Joel Osment Landed His Part

The Sixth Sense Haley Joel Osment
Buena Vista Pictures

While M. Night Shyamalan has said that Haley Joel Osment was the best person for the role of Cole Sear, the director also added that Osment had two other things in his favour that made him stand out from the rest of the young boys auditioning for the role.

One of those things was the fact that Haley was the only boy at the auditions who wore a tie, and the other thing in his favour was that Shyamalan was hugely impressed at the fact that the boy had read the entire script three times the prior night.

When you compare this to someone like Michael Cera, who said he didn’t even read the script fully, you can see why Haley Joel Osment stood out from the pack.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.