Between boy and machine: 'A.I.'s' Haley Joel Osment

By Sherri Sylvester
Showbiz Today Reports

Haley Joel Osment says he rehearsed with his dad and met with Steven Spielberg to prepare for his role in "A.I."

(CNN) -- Two of Haley Joel Osment's recent films have been somewhat otherworldly.

First there was 1999's "The Sixth Sense," in which Osment played a boy who saw dead people. Now, in Steven Spielberg's new film "A.I.," Osment plays a "mecha," a lifelike android whose search for love provides the mainspring of the science-fiction film.

"Showbiz Today Reports" correspondent Sherri Sylvester sat down with Osment and talked about working with Spielberg, learning to swim, and dealing with the movie's mysterious "sentient machine therapist," Dr. Jeanine Salla.

CNN: How did you work out your character with Steven Spielberg -- in terms of how robotic you would be and how human you would be?

Haley Joel Osment: Well, the character walks a fine line between being robot and human and that was something that was discussed a lot. I rehearsed with my dad a lot and had meetings with Steven beforehand about just how this character would move and act and think.

CNN: Tell me about acting with Teddy the animatronic bear.

Osment: Teddy was just so great -- he's just this two-foot bear, yet he functions and acts like a real bear. He had to hit his marks, say his lines on cue and even react to something that was thrown at him during the scene, so working with him was really cool. It was like working with a real actor that looked very different from a real actor.

CNN: What was the best ride?

Osment: I'd say some of the underwater stuff, even though it wasn't really like a ride -- that was probably some of the best action, you could say. The car was cool and functioning like a real car, but I'd say the underwater stuff was the best because there's nothing to compare to doing that sort of acting underwater.

CNN: Tell me a little bit about that. How did you prepare? I'm assuming you had not acted underwater before.

Osment: No, never before. There's a lot of training for that before shooting, and we did a lot of diving and then segued from that into doing the actual scenes and rehearsing them underwater.

CNN: Did you take scuba?

Osment: Yes, I'm a good swimmer -- I can hold my own underwater. This training helped me become more comfortable so these scenes would be a lot easier to do underwater.

Osment plays a lifelike android in the film

CNN: Are you certified?

Osment: Actually I didn't have time to become certified, but maybe sometime during the summer -- that's something I'd be interested in because this was a lot of fun to do and perhaps doing it out in the ocean would be something cool.

CNN: You've been acting for a long time. What did you learn as an actor on this film?

Osment: Growing as an actor, on this set especially, was almost easy. Every time you do a scene, every time you work with people you can better yourself --better your acting. And with the people that were on the set you could learn just by watching, just by working with them, by them instructing you -- when you're lucky. That environment is just great for an actor to better yourself in.

CNN: Did you read the short story -- "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" -- on which the film was based?

Osment: It's sort of loosely based on it. A lot of this was Steven and Stanley's (Kubrick) creation, but I did read a few pages -- strange stories actually. They're very different -- seeing the character names and stuff in those stories was pretty weird.

CNN: How present was Kubrick in terms of his memory and his philosophies?

Osment: Very, very present. You could see him in this film. Steven did just a really great job of accurately getting Stanley's ideas and his style into this film, and having Stanley's presence around, even though he is gone, made it very special for all of us.

CNN: Did Steven introduce you to any cool video games?

Osment: We had a lot of conversations. I actually never played with him, but he did have a lot to say about video games. He was pretty up on his video game knowledge.

CNN: What kind of mood did he create on the set?

Osment: He's fun. He's also pretty cool because you have a really fast environment on the set. Steven's a very fast director, very accurate with all of his scenes, just a really fun, cool, learning environment for everyone.

CNN: One last question. The Internet "A.I." game players want me to ask: Who is Dr. Jeanine Salla?

Osment: I actually didn't have that much work with her because she's post-production, so I didn't hear that much about her until after shooting was done.

CNN: That's sneaky ...