‘The Devil Has A Name’ Star Haley Joel Osment Is Still Working To Improve His Mustache-Twirling Prowess

For better or worse, the moment the average person sees Haley Joel Osment‘s name, four words immediately leap to mind, and while it’s never a bad thing for an actor to be remembered for delivering a tremendous performance, particularly given that it’s now been 20 years since the performance in question, something that should also be remembered is that Osment’s career continued after he said, “I see dead people.” Granted, you’d be forgiven for not spotting him lately – he’s been proudly branding a big-ass beard in his most recent performances – but rest assured that as soon as the camera catches his eyes, you’ll experience an instant epiphany of recognition.

Then again, maybe you won’t, since Osment is actually wearing sunglasses throughout a portion of his performance in his latest film, The Devil Has a Name. Trust us, though: it’s him, and we know this because Osment was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with Decider about his role, his high-profile costars, his excitement about having the opportunity to work on a politically-relevant project, and how much fun it was for him to be the bad guy for a change. Naturally, we took some time to quiz him about a few past projects as well, taking him down memory lane to chat about everything from The Sixth Sense to The Country Bears, plus a little bit of Tusk talk, too.

DECIDER: I guess the first question is the most obvious, but…how did you find your way into The Devil Has a Name in the first place? Did they come looking for you specifically, or was it a standard audition situation?

HALEY JOEL OSMENT: By the time they sent me the script, the email already had Alfred Molina, David Straitharn, and Martin Sheen’s names attached to it, so I was pretty excited right off the bat. And then to see that it was a story about such a relevant topic—it’s all these ecological crises that we’re facing right now—I was really excited to get on board.

It’s usually a good thing to have an actor behind the camera. How was Edward James Olmos to work with in that capacity?

It’s such a challenge to be in a film and direct it at the same time, and it was so impressive watching Eddie do it. I think I only had one scene where he was directing and acting at the same time, but it was this epic scene in a diner where I’m trying to tell Santiago and Fred on this land deal that the oil company wants to pull off, and watching him work with his director of photography and play this kind of outrageous character and be directing David and me in the scene at the same time… I learned a lot from watching that.

It’s been years since he’s directed a film. I know he did American Me in the ’90s, and then an HBO movie (Walkout) in the 2000s, but it’s definitely an all-too-rare treat.

Oh, yeah, and he seemed really excited to be doing this movie. He cares so much about this project and all the different causes that it encompasses… Yeah, it was awesome working with him on it.

As far as your other co-stars, I think you shared more screen time with Kate Bosworth than anyone else.

Yeah! Yeah, we got to do some fun, evil plotting. [Laughs.] Their partnership is very interesting, because she’s sort of the colder, more realistic expression of… I guess you could say the evil of these companies, although she has a change of heart later on. And my character is so arrogant and thinks he’s got the world by the balls and that he’s got one up on everyone when, in fact, he’s in way over his head. She has a lot more power of him than he realizes. That, combined with what Ezekiel can do to threaten him into compliance. So, yeah, it’s very funny to see the change from him thinking he’s on top of the world when signing these contracts with her to being taken away in handcuffs at the end.

Given the amount of evil plotting you do, how easy is it to twirl your mustache with a beard as formidable as yours?

[Laughs.] I guess I need to grow the mustache out a bit more. I need to increase my twirling abilities!

The film has kind of an interesting tone. Did you have any problems finding your way into the character?

I mean, at a time like this, it’s almost hard to not be overwhelmed by all these stories in the world about corporations completely unshackled by regulations, exploiting people, poisoning the land and the water. I feel like I’ve been reading about things like this almost constantly for many years before we started working on the film. When it came to the actual character of Alex, the script gave me a great roadmap, because there’s so many funny elements that gave me a lot to run with. But there’s also a lot of real-life inspiration in the different creatures you have in the Trump administration, from the cold-hearted Gigi character for the money and the power, and then people like Alex, who kind of want the fame and attention and are, in fact, way out of their depth and get overwhelmed by the whole machine.

And, of course, you’re got more than a few politically-active actors in the midst of the film, with Martin Sheen being the most prominent of the bunch. 

Oh, yeah. Having the courtroom scene with him was so amazing. And to be the antagonist in that situation, watching him deliver all these righteous speeches… And my character is such a jerk, he just tries to blow right past him. [Laughs.]

I wanted to ask you about a few things from your back catalog, and I’ll start with one of the earliest in the bunch. What do you remember about the experience of doing Thunder Alley? 

Yeah! That was my first network sitcom. I think I was five years old when we started that! Working with Ed Asner on that…and Jim Beaver, who we’re still family friends with… Yeah, that was a really cool cast.

I’ve interviewed both those guys and talked about the show with them, but I’ve had several conversations with Jim over the years. He’s awesome.

Oh, yeah, Jim’s a really, really great guy.

And it wasn’t long after that when you stepped onto The Jeff Foxworthy Show. How was Jeff as a father figure?

Oh, he was a great guy, and we got to spend a lot of time with his family, his wife and two daughters. That cast got along really well, too. We had Bill Engvall and his family there, too. Yeah, that was a really interesting period, where I did something like three or four seasons back to back of network television. That’s a really specific way of working, to do a live show every week and having a really regimented schedule. I think that was really helpful for me early on in terms of comic timing and things like that.

How did you enjoy doing A.I. Artificial Intelligence? I’ve always felt that it was an underrated film.

Oh, I love that one, too. Yeah, you know, I think people have come around to it more as the years have gone on. It came out at kind of a strange time, and I think there was sort of a misperception of it and what elements of it had been developed by Steven [Spielberg] and Stanley [Kubrick] that people didn’t quite understand. I think Steven has been really vindicated. I was at the LACMA exhibit with all the Kubrick stuff a couple of years ago, and they had these drawings… [Hesitates.] The thing that people seemed to be upset about was the final act and the ice world and that stuff, and there were these amazing drawings that Stanley had done in the early ’90s of all of it laid out, and Steven had just realized the vision faithfully and perfectly. I think it’s just an extraordinary collaboration, and I felt very lucky to be a part of it. It’s one of those films that I think will continue mattering to people for decades.

I will say that it made more of an impact on me when I saw it the second time, because by then I had a kid.

Oh, yeah. Man, I can imagine!. [Laughs.] That’s a tough one for a parent…

Speaking of kids, I was curious how the experience was for you to make the jump from child actor to adult actor. Was it difficult, or did you just have the mindset that you were going to roll with the punches, whatever they might be?

Yeah, although part of it was that I left Los Angeles. God, I lived in New York for, like, fifteen years, actually, even though I was often working back here. But I went to college for four or five years, when I basically wasn’t doing much work in film and television at all. And part of that was just to sort of really make a firm decision whether that was the career I wanted to pursue and to run with it. And it became clear very quickly that it is something that I want to do for my entire life.

There’s challenges in it when people have an image in their mind of you when you’re twelve or something. [Laughs.] They have to square it with you getting older. But it also presents its opportunities, because I’m enjoying having popped up in certain things where people maybe haven’t even recognized me at first. To build a resume over your career that’s filled with such a variety of characters, that’s what the most interesting part of the job is for me.

Was the beard a conscious choice to help further separate yourself from your earlier work?

Part of it was almost just as a disguise. You know what I mean? Also, once you realize you can grow a beard, there’s definitely a side of you that’s, like, “Let’s see how far we can take this.” [Laughs.] But then it became kind of identified with a number of characters over the past couple of years, with the long hair and the beard. so I guess I’ll have to try something new next!

I hear you with the “let’s see how far we can take this” thing. I haven’t cut my hair since the pre-pandemic era.

Oh, wow. [Laughs.] Yeah, haircuts have really suffered this year…

So at this point, have you just developed a stock reaction to deliver when people quote The Sixth Sense at you?

Well, this year it’s been at an all-time low, just because there’s been so little face-to-face interaction! But it always surprises me. We had our 20th anniversary last year, and it’s just wild the life that it continues to have. It seems to pop up in memes and everything, so the fact that it’s still a reference point to people… I’ve been, like, “Were you even born when this movie came out?” [Laughs.]  But it does make me happy that it’s made that kind of impact on people.

It’s fun seeing you pop up in such shows as What We Do in the Shadows, not to mention the ad campaign for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Is that where your sense of humor tends to lean? In that slightly-skewed direction? 

Yeah, I’ve loved Sunny since it came out, and… Well, only the one season of What We Do in the Shadows had come out, but I loved the movie, and that first season blew me away, so to get the chance to do that… [Trails off.] I think one of the most surreal things that you get to do in this industry is that you watch a whole season of something and then a little while later you’re on the set and in that world. It really can blow your mind!

You’ve been doing this for so much of your life, working with so many big names at such an early age, that I presume you’re not as intimidated by the thought of doing scenes with a superstar as you might overwise be, but do you remember the first time that you found yourself having that feeling about working with an actor?

I don’t know if I was ever intimidated. But like you said, that’s partly because when you’re a kid… I mean, I didn’t really even have that reaction that you have when you recognize someone from movies you’ve seen. But I also think that’s a tribute to the fact that I can’t think of a bad experience working with any big star. Everyone was so nice and so generous throughout the process. I’ve really just had a bunch of good experiences throughout my career.

When I worked with Tom Hanks [on Forrest Gump]… I mean, I was too young to even really understand the concept of movie stars. [Laughs.] But by the time I got to set with Bruce Willis… Bruce was definitely the first time where I was, like, “Okay, this is a big A-list star,” or whatever. But he was terrific. I mean, I wasn’t going to the after-parties on Fridays, but he was DJ’ing for the crew and everything. He was definitely having a really good time on that movie.

When I posed that question, I was thinking in particular about Secondhand Lions, just because you’ve got not only Robert Duvall, but Michael Caine, too.

Oh, yeah. Those guys are legends. That’s definitely one of those times. But it was cool that they’d just hang out in their directors chairs off to the side while they were setting up the lights, and you could just listen to them spinning stories that they had over their 50+ years of their careers. Yeah, that was a fascinating experience. And that movie’s coming up on 20 years. I guess it’s been, what, 17 years? But those guys… They’ve added almost two more decades to their incredible careers! [Laughs.] I’m just in awe of them. That’s definitely something that I aspire to,

I have to at least ask you briefly about The Country Bears. I know you weren’t really interacting with other actors a whole lot, but…that’s just an insane movie.

Yes! Christopher Walken. [Laughs.] Classic Walken. And what’s funny is that when I did Silicon Valley, I got to team up with Stephen Tobolowsky again! So I can say that we’ve done two projects together.

In general, is there a favorite project you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?

Huh… [Long pause.] I guess things have been… I mean, even if they didn’t do big numbers at the box office, the way things are today, they still find their audience online, even if it’s years down the line. Like, doing a movie like Tusk… [Laughs.] I love doing stuff like that, because even though some people responded negatively to it and there are some bad reviews, the movie is such an absurd, Twilight Zone-like thing that it’s very funny to see people get mad at a movie like that. It’s, like, based on a joke on a podcast! Movies that people make primarily to amuse themselves, which is what Kevin [Smith] did because he wanted to work with his friend and create a fun, crazy movie, that’s the stuff that I’m always down for.

Another example of that… Not that it got a negative reaction like Tusk did, but when I worked on The Spoils of Babylon with Will Ferrell and Tobey Maguire and Kristen Wiig and Tim Robbins and this crazy cast, that’s one that I think is continuing to find its audience. Not a lot of people saw it when it came out, but it’s out there on Amazon or wherever, and it’s always a big surprise to people who come across it. But while we were making it, Andrew Steele and Will Ferrell and Matt Piedmont had made these Old Milwaukee commercials just for the Midwest… [Starts to laugh.] I don’t even think they were on the internet at the time. They just showed on local television! I was talking to Andrew Steele, and he was, like, “People are so confused! They’re, like, ‘Why are you doing this? Did you get paid a lot of money?’ And we’re, like, ‘No.’ People don’t understand: we just do this because it amuses us. We have fun with it.'” That’s the sort of thing I like to be a part of.

Well, that’s like when Will and Kristen Wiig did that Lifetime movie (A Deadly Adoption),

Yes! Exactly! That confused people so much! [Laughs.]

Is there anything you’d like to do to confuse people?

Oh, well, I guess I couldn’t reveal it beforehand… But, yeah, there are definitely some ideas that I’d like to try!

In closing, I’ll just say that it was great seeing you turn up on The Boys.

Oh, thank you, man! I love that show. And the finale just came out, too. So you’d better go watch it!

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)

Where to watch The Devil Has A Name