Emily & Haley Osment Universe

Director M. Night Shyamalan adds, "I've worked with kids before. We had strong child actors in 'Wide Awake,' for example. The role of Cole, however, was uniquely complex. It was even more important to find the right actor. We had to find someone we could believe had all these terrifying things happening to him.

"I had seen kids from New York and Philadelphia and was getting tapes from all over the country. I was physically and mentally exhausted from the search but eventually I went to Los Angeles to look, although, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that was going to be a waste of time. Then Haley came in ... wearing a little Oxford shirt ... and he struck me as a cute, sweet little kid.

"I just leaned back and Haley started the scene and it was like I had never heard the scene before," Shyamalan says. "It was as though I had never heard the dialogue, all of a sudden every word was perfect. He finished the scene and was crying, and I was crying and all I could say was, 'Who are you? Where did you come from?' Haley started laughing as he wiped the tears away. Then he did two more scenes for me and he performed every line, every scene just as I wrote it in my head. He completely blew me out of the water!

"I then went back to New York and told the casting director that I don't want to make the film without Haley," the director says. "It was the weirdest thing that ever came out of my mouth but I was being honest ... I meant it. Then we brought Haley in to read for Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy who have done their share of movies with kids. By the time Haley finished the scene, everyone was crying again and we all agreed that the search was over. It's done. Haley is Cole."

-Director M. Night Shyamalan
The Sixth Sense