Actor Haley Joel Osment is pictured in a Toronto hotel as he promotes "Tusk" during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO - Haley Joel Osment says being a former child star is a "double-edged sword."

The 26-year-old actor is still known to many as the kid who could see dead people in "The Sixth Sense," or for his starring turns in films like "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" and "Pay it Forward."

Osment said in an interview during the Toronto International Film Festival that he's grateful for his early success but it "burns an image into people's minds."

"When you're a kid and you grow up, it takes some time for people to associate you with more things other than that initial thing. So it's a challenge but I've been lucky enough to do a lot of projects recently that are all over the map," he said. "It's created a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

In Kevin Smith's new horror-comedy "Tusk," screening at the fest, Osment plays a bearded, wise-cracking podcaster. He springs into action to save his friend (Justin Long) who is abducted by a Canadian serial killer who turns people into creepy, humanoid walruses.

It's the latest project in which Osment reveals a new side of himself. He has also been praised for his voice-acting in the "Kingdom Hearts" video games and for his role in IFC miniseries "The Spoils of Babylon."

Osment said it's impossible to shed the image that fans have of him — and he wouldn't necessarily want to.

"I think it would be a mistake to consciously try and fight it. I'm very proud of those films. It's a really happy thing," he said. "You try and do something to try and shatter that image in people's minds, it's kind of not a nice thing to do to your audience. I think I would be trying too hard, you know?"

His first film role was in "Forrest Gump" as the title character's son — "Yeah, that's not a bad way to start," Osment laughed — which he said he landed after the casting director saw him in a Pizza Hut commercial.

Osment still hears from "The Sixth Sense" director M. Night Shyamalan, whom he called "a great guy."

"I will never forget how easygoing he was in this movie," he said. "Making 'The Sixth Sense,' he was 28 or something. He had all this enormous pressure and big Hollywood producers over his shoulder and everything, and I remember he would just be bouncing a basketball in his director's chair, just very at ease."

Osment was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the supernatural thriller, an experience he says is still hard to put into words.

"I remember thinking, 'This is crazy,'" he said. "But what's kind of nice is everybody at the Oscars — veterans or newcomers — most people have that kind of wonder because it's so many people in the same room that you come to love through film and everything."

He recalled that he was about to start filming "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" at the time and director Steven Spielberg offered him some wisdom.

"He said, 'The best part of the Oscars is not what's on the telecast. It's that moment when they go to commercial and everybody runs around trying to shake hands with the people that they're fans of.' And that was true," he said.

"Jude Law (and I) were nominated in the same category and then we made 'A.I.' shortly after. I remember him coming all the way across the room and going, 'Did you hear we're going to be robots in this movie?' That was kind of cool."

The Toronto International Film Festival runs until Sunday.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2014