This evening, USA broadcast AFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award tribute to Tom Hanks. Among the people paying homage was Haley Joel Osment.
I’m not sure if his voice has changed or is still in the process of changing. It was way deep most of the time, but at one point it squeaked just a little; not Peter Brady or anything, but noticeable. At any rate, he took the mike and said one phrase and everyone laughed. He didn’t say anything particularly funny; they just laughed.
Not mean, of course, but just a natural reaction, like “Whoa, that’s different!” I wonder if any money changed hands the evening this was recorded, due to speculation as to how he’d sound?
If anyone’s interested, you can hear him speak here.
He’s remarkably poised for a kid his age.
Personally, I thought he was robbed of the Oscar. Hope he gets another shot at one, but kid actors, youneverknow.
He’s one of the most articulate actors, period, in Hollywood today. I’m always amazed at how well he speaks when he gives an interview. This article from Esquire he did really blew me away.
Sure is tougher nowadays for child actors - I remember they used to give out special Oscars for juvenile achievement. Now (as then), there’s so much pressure on a kid to succeed as an actor that he or she usually has only one shot, and then they’re typecast. Unless, of course, they’re doing a series of movies, like Harry Potter.
Thanks for the link, brondicon!
Not long ago, someone linked me to an article where the author was just ripping HJO, calling him “disturbingly well-spoken”, and expressing anxiety that he’s influencing other kid actors to “be miniature adults”.
To that I say, “Pah!” What’s disturbing about a professional behaving as such? If Haley is influencing other kid actors and their parents/handlers to be well-spoken and act in a mature manner (and it’s entirely possible), that can only be a good thing. If he, or the Harry Potter kids, or any of the other current child actors end up hitting the rocks, at least there won’t be any “E! True Hollywood Story”, with footage of them acting like sleazy twenty-somethings at age 12.
Had a lot of time to think while waiting for this to go through. “Connection with server cannot be established”. Again, “Pah!”
Anyway, I was thinking about an article I once read in Movieline. Eve might remember it; heck, she might be the author, for all I know! Anyway, it was called “Ten Interviews that Shook the World”, and one of them was the one that spawned the term “Brat Pack*”. It was supposed to be a profile of Timothy Hutton (I think), but the interviewer ended up accompanying the subject on a pub crawl with three or four other twentysomething actors. Tim Hutton may not have been the subject, but he was there, because the most telling moment of the evening was when one of his mates (Rob Lowe, maybe?) said sotto voce to the reporter, “It’s going to get to the point where his Oscar doesn’t matter any more.”
That’s true, really. An Oscar is not a union card; it doesn’t guarantee work for a lifetime. Eve could also tell us about a lady by the name of Luise Rainer, who has (had?) two Oscars, one for The Good Earth and one for The Great Ziegfeld. And few people remember her other than for that distinction! Haley’s credit is that people watch Sixth Sense and say, “Why didn’t he get the Oscar?”
*A term I despise. It was a simple play on words; a takeoff on Sinatra’s Rat Pack. I wouldn’t use it, except that I had to give exposition for my anecdote.
Well color me relieved that you’re talking about Haley Joel Osmont’s voice changing. When I saw the title, I envisioned a TMI-type thread involving an adolescent boy discovering his father’s stash of Vivid[sup]TM[/sup] videos.
:eek:
