Throughout the years following his Academy Award-nominated performance in the now iconic supernatural thriller “The Sixth Sense,” Haley Joel Osment appeared on screen sporadically having a couple other noteworthy roles like those in “Pay It Forward” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” But despite remaining a working actor, his adult career had not reached the same level of success and many wondered if he would ever fully return to the spotlight.

Last year, Osment worked on his highest profile project in several years, the Kevin Smith-directed absurdist horror comedy “Tusk” and in numerous other television and film projects. Now, with his substantial role as a jealous villain in the “Entourage” movie and a handful of projects in the horizon, the 27-year-old actor is on its way to reclaim his place in the industry.

Osment talked to us about his experience joining the cast of the iconic TV series for their big screen debut and his upcoming slate of titles to be released soon.

We saw you last year in Kevin Smith’s “Tusk” and a couple other projects, how did you get involved with the “Entourage” film?

Haley Joel Osment: I auditioned for it at the end of 2013, I read the script, gathered how much fun the character was and I was really excited to do it. After auditioning a couple months went by before I heard anything. It came out of nowhere and I was on set the following week. I had a lot of fun doing this character, playing this guy with this accent and with a very specific way of presenting himself. When I auditioned I didn’t know that Billy Bob Thornton was going to be playing my dad in the movie. It was a lot of fun to work with him and Jeremy Piven.

Where you a fan of the series or did you have any connection to it beforehand?

Haley Joel Osment: Yes, it came out when I was in high school and I remember watching it with my friends. I definitely rewatched it quite a bit when I got the role in the movie. It was really surreal to be on set with these guys after being so familiar with the show for so long.

ENTOURAGE

Tell me about your experience working with this group of guys who have known each other for a long time and the the celebrities doing cameos.

Haley Joel Osment: They are all guys who love working together. It was almost like a high school reunion for them when they got back in the same room together. With all the cameos and everything, it was just a really fun environment to be around. There were cameos that were in the script and others that sort of evolved naturally because Doug would be getting texts from people in the music industry and athletes going ‘Hey I want to be in the movie.’ Somebody suggested Mike Tyson should do it, they called him, and he showed up like an hour later on set. There was this constant possibility that somebody could show up out of the blue to do a cameo.

Your character is a spoiled and rich Texan kid who is about to bring down an entire $100 million production over the love of a girl. That’s insane.

Haley Joel Osment: Right [Laughs]. He comes from this billionaire family and he’s never had to work a day in his life. He has this very inflated ego and he is not happy to have to deal with a rival, although it’s not really a rival because he is no competition for Vince. He is used to being the “top dog” in every situation. When he comes to Hollywood he becomes very envious of Vince and how easily he gets girls. It was fun to play someone who reacts really badly to that and who becomes the antagonist.

Is playing someone who is completely different from you part of the appeal?

Haley Joel Osment: Definitely, I think that’s really exciting for a lot of actors. He is so different from me and it’s fun to remove all the nice parts about yourself and being sort of a jerk [Laughs]

ENTOURAGE

You’ve taken on very diverse roles lately from indie features to horror comedies and now this huge studio film. What is next?

Haley Joel Osment: I really enjoy the variety of all these roles I’ve been doing in the last couple years. Next is the second season of “The Spoils of Babylon,” which is called “The Spoils Before Dying,” which will come out on July 7th on IFC and then it’ll stream sometime in the future after that. That’s with Kristen Wiig, Michael Kenneth Williams, Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, among others, and it was a lot of fun to work on. I recently made “Tusk” with Kevin Smith and very soon after we were done with that film we all got back together, the entire cast, to make “Yoga Hosers,” which should come out at the end of the year. Before that, I made a film with Richard Armitage and Ahna O’Reilly called “Sleepwalker” and that should be released sometime in the fall. There was also the film “Sed Ed,” which came out on November 7th on limited release domestically and should have a DVD and streaming release sometime this year.

You’ve been involved in the industry since you were very young, have you ever thought about writing and directing or is acting your priority?

Haley Joel Osment: Acting is my first love and I’ll always be involved in that, but I did some writing and directing in college. Hopefully in the next phase of my career that’s something I can add to what I’m doing because I really enjoy it.

Is there a chance that this film could reignite interest for the series to return and that you could become a character in it?

Haley Joel Osment: I think they are all excited to see how the film does. I’m not sure if my character has a future in the film series, but I feel pretty certain that if the film does well they could return with more films in the future.

ENTOURAGE will be released in theaters on June 3.

Movie star Vincent Chaster, together with his boys Eric, Turtle, and Johnny, are back – and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold.