Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. Photo / Supplied
Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. Photo / Supplied
Toni Collette almost missed out on The Sixth Sense because of her hair. Seriously.
That's just one of the little-known facts we've tracked down to celebrate the M Night Shyamalan thriller that was released 20 years ago this week.
Starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress for Collette and Best Supporting Actor for the film's 10-year-old lead star.
I'm not sure if we really have to add a spoiler warning given the movie was released two decades ago, but if by some miracle you still don't know the twist ending, best to stop reading now.
Shyamalan wrote the role of Malcolm Crowe with Bruce Willis in mind, and once he saw Haley Joel Osment audition, he knew he'd found the perfect kid to play Cole Sear.
How did they pull it off? Photo / Supplied
"There was something magical about his audition," Shyamalan told The Hollywood Reporter about Osment. "When I left the room, I told the casting director, 'I don't know if I want to make the movie if it's not with that kid'."
Another child actor who auditioned for the role of Cole was Michael Cera, who later starred in Arrested Development.
"I auditioned for The Sixth Sense, which I didn't know was about seeing dead people," Cera told Esquire in 2009. "They didn't mention that in the breakdown.
"After seeing the movie and remembering the scene they had me read … It was the scene with the penny. Bruce Willis is saying, 'I can't be your doctor anymore', and Haley Joel Osment starts crying and slides the penny over to him. It's a very emotional scene. And I did not do it that way. I did it upbeat. I said, 'Some magic's real', very optimistically."
TONI COLLETTE'S HAIRCUT ALMOST COST HER THE ROLE
That's not Toni Collette's real hair. Photo / Supplied
The Aussie actor almost missed out on playing Cole's mum, Lynn Sear, because of the unique hairstyle she was sporting at the time of her audition.
"I had seen Muriel's Wedding and Toni came in and her head was shaved, and I forget if it was for fun or if it was for a movie," Shyamalan told Variety.
"She did such a beautiful job. I didn't want to show the video to the studio for fear that they would be concerned with her appearance, and I said, 'I want to cast the woman from Muriel's Wedding', and then Bruce (Willis) backed me and said, 'Oh, I love Muriel's Wedding', so we kind of got it without the studio seeing the audition, and I was so lucky.
"Toni is actually wearing a wig throughout all of The Sixth Sense, and I think it's a wig from Velvet Goldmine. We didn't even have the wig!" Shyamalan said.
THAT FAMOUS LINE
"I see dead people," is the line that everyone best remembers from The Sixth Sense, but as Osment told The Hollywood Reporter, they didn't realise during filming that the line was going to be so iconic.
"Even when we were shooting that scene, nobody was pointing to that line or singling it out for special attention," Osment, now 31, said.
"I don't even think it really gathered momentum until the film had been out for a while and the advertising started pivoting to including it on the posters and commercials and the like."
ACTOR WANTED TO GO NUDE
Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids On The Block fame starved himself and shed more than 19kg to play the character of Vincent.
After the first table read, he came to the conclusion that it would be better for his character to be completely nude during his pivotal scene.
"I pitched it to Bruce (Willis), and he was like, 'That's amazing, let's tell Night'," Wahlberg recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. "I told Night and he was like, 'OK, great'."
Unfortunately, the nude scene didn't fit with the studio's plans to make the film PG-13, so Wahlberg was told he had to wear something on camera.
"They showed me some of the clothes and I really begged, 'Can I at least compromise and be in tighty-whities?'" he said.
FREEZING SET
Haley Joel Osment's breath is real. Photo / Touchstone Pictures
There are several scenes in The Sixth Sense where you can see the characters' breath, including the scene where Osment says, "I see dead people."
Rather than use CGI to create the breath effect, Shyamalan decided to film the scenes in a freezing cold room.
"What they did was they would drape this huge plastic sheeting over the sets and then pump in freezing cold air so that it would be below freezing and you could see our breath," Osment told Variety.
"There was a limited time that we could be in there because it was so cold, and most of the scenes I'm in my underwear or something. It's a tough environment, but it's great when you're in a scene where you're supposed to be frightened and shivering and it really is that cold."
ROLE THAT CHANGED BARTON'S LIFE
It's easy to forget that Mischa Barton was in The Sixth Sense.
Mischa Barton in The Sixth Sense and later in The OC
Before she starred in The O.C., Barton played Kyra Collins in the film, a young girl who was poisoned by her mum.
Speaking to Variety, Barton said the film terrified her classmates, and she was never treated the same.
"I never went back to school as just a regular kid anymore," she said. "All these kids went to the movie theatre and they were like, 'Is that you?'
"The whole school treated me differently. I don't think the teachers knew what to do with me."
Shyamalan gives several clues throughout the film that Malcolm (Bruce Willis) is dead.
If you rewatch the movie, you'll notice that after he's shot by his crazed ex-patient (played by Wahlberg), Malcolm only ever interacts with Cole (Haley Joel Osment).
Malcolm also never touches or moves objects in front of anyone apart from Cole. For example, when Malcolm rocks up late to his anniversary dinner with Anna, he never actually touches his chair. And when he goes to grab the cheque, Anna snatches it before he can pick it up.
