After being nominated for an Oscar, Haley Joel Osment decided to leave Hollywood and attend college.

After being nominated for an Oscar, Haley Joel Osment decided to leave Hollywood and attend college.
After being nominated for an Oscar, Haley Joel Osment decided to leave Hollywood and attend college.

Haley Joel Osment, as a teenager, had already achieved a successful career that many actors envy. He had collaborated with Steven Spielberg, received an Oscar nomination at a young age, and shared the screen with some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Although he achieved success and received substantial paydays, Osment claims his parents instilled in him the knowledge that he could abandon acting at any time.

"My parents had a healthy suspicion of Hollywood and the industry, and they made sure that my sister and I knew that if acting wasn't fun, we could quit and return to school, as they had a policy in place."

Osment, despite being one of the most successful young actors in the industry at 36, took a step back from the limelight in his teens and left Hollywood to focus on his education.

"Osment, whose mother is a sixth grade teacher, stated that there was an understanding that he would have to finish college. He knew that up to the age of 22, that part of his life was very much set in stone."

The star of "The Sixth Sense" was not bothered by the cameras that had been a constant presence in his life since childhood. Instead, he distanced himself from them as much as possible by traveling across the country to attend New York University.

""I was fortunate to have a comfortable job and work only because I wanted to, but I realized that I had been working since childhood and needed to take a step back to determine if this was my lifelong career goal," he stated."

Osment wonders what his career and bank account might look like if he had worked throughout his college years, despite spending the majority of his life in the industry, including a recent role in Zoë Kravitz's "Blink Twice".

"He reflects on the possibility that if he had worked harder at age 18 and pursued high-profile opportunities, it might have been a wiser business decision. However, he acknowledges that he had the freedom to prioritize protecting his relationship to the art over achieving success."

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An Oscar nomination has given Osment a clear idea of the success he wants to achieve: a successful and fruitful career in film.

""If I can direct 10 films and be in at least 100 movies, I will feel truly fulfilled," he says."

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by Nicolas Vega

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