After playing a rather flamboyant gay twink in the comedy Sassy Pants, Haley Joel Osment may take on his most challenging role to date -- a middle-aged Midwestern lesbian in a same-sex marriage comedy.
Sassy Pants director Coley Sohn describes her film as a home-schooled girl's coming-of-age story. Osment plays Chip, the much younger, party-happy boyfriend of the heroine's deadbeat father (Diedrich Bader).
Osment says he responded to the material right away and accepted the role immediately after reading the script. The 24-year-old actor, best-known to moviegoers for his work in Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, and A.I., enjoyed playing a character different from his previous ones. Osment enjoyed collaborting with Sohn to create Chip's distinctive look, which includes an outlandish hairstyle and lip ring. "You find a skin for a character, and sometimes it's simple and contained, but Chip has so much going on," he says. Osment makes it clear that despite Chip's somewhat flamboyant appearance, he isn't laughing at his character. "The humor doesn't come from the fact that he's gay," he insists. "It's the attitude and outrageousness of this person firing on all cylinders from such a ridiculous circumstance in life."
Sohn reveals her that next film will be a dark comedy about same-sex marriage. "I want Haley to play a middle-aged Midwestern lesbian," she says. Osment is ready for the challenge. "We can do it, " he jokes. "The technology is there."
Sassy Pants will screen Saturday at Los Angeles's DGA Theatre. Watch Osment and Sohn discuss the film below.
Sassy Pants director Coley Sohn and Haley Joel Osment from Indie PR on Vimeo.
