3. Haley Joel Osment. A.I: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
I could have easily included two Haley Joel Osment films on this list, but I had to only pick one, and after much consideration I decided to go with his role as David the android in this Spielberg epic, as opposed to his role as the boy who sees dead people in The Sixth Sense (regardless of the latter being the better film). Many people hate the film A.I, but then again many people love it. I personally love it, but I understand the films biggest critics. Something that is not disputable though (or it is, but I want to sound all dramatic) is Osments powerful performance at the center of this film. Never has a robot (well, maybe Wall-e) made me feel this much. Haley Joel Osment is never not convincing in this role. He is a robot. Maybe some would argue that his robotic performance was well robotic, therefore not good. But he was a robot, and this was exactly how I imagine a robot child would be like and act. Plus, for a robot, there were times when his performance had me close to tears, just saying. I dont know what it is about Spielberg, but he knows how to get the most for his child actors, and this is why yet another child lead film of his appears a little further down this list (just a little). It is sad that Osments career was pretty much over post his performance in this role, but it certainly had nothing to do with his epic performance in this epic film. 146 minutes and hardly ever was Haley not in shot. This alone should have been enough to guarantee an acting nomination but it wasnt. Just another example of the lack of respect many younger actors in films receive. He is arguably the greatest younger actor of all time. ALL TIME.