n Steven Spielberg's upcoming A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, 13-year-old Haley Joel Osment takes on the most challenging role of his brief career, playing David, a robot boy designed to love. Osment, the gifted child star of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, appears in almost all of the two-and-a-half hour film, and must trace his character's emotional journey from newly born android to emotionally complex child.
The challenges included playing entire scenes without blinking--to approximate the unwavering gaze of a robot--and performing opposite other computer-animated or puppet robots, including Teddy, a toy bear that walks and talks. Osment balanced wrenching emotional scenes with Frances O'Connor, who plays his mother, against lighthearted moments with Jude Law, who played a robot gigolo.
Kathleen Kennedy, Spielberg's longtime producing partner and a producer on A.I., had her own set of challenges, including overseeing a film with massive special effects and an international crew. Kennedy also worked with Spielberg to preserve the late director Stanley Kubrick's legacy in the film, which Kubrick developed from a short story by SF author Brian Aldiss. Both Osment and Kennedy took a moment recently to discuss the ambitious film, which opens June 29.
Haley Joel Osment, you have to play a complex character and have to balance the robotic with the human elements. What did you draw on to play the different elements?
Osment: Most of it was just from my own imagination, sort of drawing on things that were in the script to create the character and ... getting all the nuances and the developments in the role from what was happening on the set and what was happening during every scene. ... A lot of it had to be drawn from what was happening right there.
Before we shot, we had to develop the physicality and the mentality and his reactions: ... How he perceived the world around him and how he thought and how he moved. All that was developed long before we started shooting. And we had a lot of meetings with Steven ... getting all that down before we could put it all together and use it to create a character to react to the things that were being thrown at him in the film. Because when he comes into this film, he is just a clean slate. He just has his ... basic blueprint and just goes and develops through all these things that happen to him.
You're literally carrying this movie. Does that cause any anxiety on your part?
Osment: It wasn't pressure or anything. ... I never really thought about it too much. I just tried to do the best job possible with my character, and I guess it wasn't really a thought for me. ... I just sort of did the best job I could, as I would with any other role.
What was most challenging part of the role?
Osment: Just the development was hard, because he has to become more and more human, and he never makes it completely to becoming completely human, but he gets pretty close, and that development was hard.
How do you not blink?
Osment: Most of all, it's just not thinking about it a lot. After the first week of forcing my eyes not to blink--and it was pretty hard the first week--it got to where it was just an involuntary reaction that you do. You just have to not sort of think about it subconsciously, forcing yourself to keep your eyes open. ... Keeping your eyes relaxed.
Were you aware of Steven Spielberg's work to keep Kubrick's own vision of how things should be made?
Osment: There was always a little bit of Stanley on the set, and his style was always there. And I just saw the film recently, and a lot of the shots, you just see Stanley's style. Since he developed this with Steven, and a lot of this was his, a lot of the things in the film were his creation, you could see him there in the story and the shots, and even on the set, Steven would say sometimes, "Oh, this is a shot Steven would have done." ... He was so aware of what Stanley would do, you see a lot of his style in the film.
What Kubrick films are you allowed to watch?
Osment: I'm waiting to see 2001 in a big-screen revival, because Dad says it's better to see it there, because the small screen doesn't do it that much justice.
What was your favorite robot character?
Osment: A lot during the Flesh Fair was pretty interesting. All of [creature and makeup effects supervisor] Stan Winston's guys were pretty cool. But Teddy was probably top of the list. Reading the script, I ... didn't know how they were going to pull this off, but Teddy on the set [was] just amazing, almost like acting across from a real actor, because of how good he was at being Teddy. The finished result, just seeing the film, was amazing. He looks exactly what the script describes him as being.
Was Teddy actually there?
Osment: He was there for most of the time. There were a few times when he was [computer] generated, but yeah, he was there most of the time. And he was almost like another actor on the set, because he would have to hit his mark, he'd have to have a good expression. There would be Teddy acting notes for ... They had to make him a little clumsy to walk, because he's supposed to be an old bear. So sometimes he would miss his mark and stumble forward, and Steven would go [in loud voice], "The bear is not on his mark!" with a megaphone and everything, they'd have to come in. ... Teddy would miss his mark, and [Spielberg] would get frustrated with Teddy just like with a real actor [laughs].
You have a wrenching emotional scene with Frances O'Connor in the woods. Was that difficult to shoot?
Osment: That was tough. But it was good that we shot in semi-continuity, because we had shot all the scenes at home with Frances and developing that relationship between the two characters, so it was good to draw on that. ... Doing that was challenging, because it's the first time the character has these emotions just thrown open, ... so he doesn't react to these emotions like a normal robot or person would, sort of in the middle. So doing that was interesting and one of the most challenging things.
What was it like working with Jude Law?
Osment: Jude's just a great person, always has a smile on his face, just wonderful to work with because of his attitude, really lightens up a set. Because he's never unhappy with what's going on ... always just a pleasure to work with.
There was a lot of secrecy surrounding the making of A.I., and scripts were tightly controlled. Were you given your own script?
Osment: Yes, after our second meeting with Steven, we were allowed to read the script, which was amazing, of course.
Were you allowed to take it home with you? [Frances O'Connor, among other actors, said she was able to keep only her portion of the script.]
Osment: Yeah. But it was kept pretty secret. You had your name printed down on each page of the script, so if it was copied, everybody would know ... where the script came from. But everyone on the set was very security-conscious. We didn't go to real extremes in security. We didn't have to, because everybody on the set was really good at keeping the script and the story a secret, which was really good.
What was it like seeing all the robot duplicates of yourself in one key scene?
Osment: There was a lot of work [by] Stan Winston on stuff like that, so they could develop all these other copies. ... It added to the character, [who] had ... perhaps more of an extreme reaction as I did to ... all these other copies of the character. So it was one of the creepier scenes in the film, in the end when he realizes that he's not unique. It was cool to be there, because they were all these almost perfect replicas.
Did you keep any of them?
Osment: No [laughs]. My mom wouldn't like it too much.
We heard you were quite a basketball video-game ace?
Osment: Oh, on the set, they had one in the craft services trailer, so at lunch and stuff, we'd sometimes go and play football or basketball and those games. I got pretty good, but those grips are good. They can get really good, and the craft service guy who owned it, he was probably the master, he beat everybody. But it was fun. We sort of had our own little championship video game playing there at lunch [laughs].
How do you keep grounded as a kid? You're 13 now.
Osment: It's pretty easy. Easier than you think or would expect. ... Just going home, you know, and going to school and everything, everything there is very normal, and nothing comes out [from] the movies in those two places. I'm just like a normal kid. I get grades in school, do my chores at home, and everything's just like a normal kid, so it's almost like two different worlds. And, like, even the best of both worlds, because I love working, and I love the normal part of life, going to school and being at home and everything, and it's good to have that to go back to after acting.
You've been described as very adult. How do you react to that perception?
Osment: It's nice to have people think that of me. I just try and do my best on the set as an actor and a person. I guess I've had a lot of experience and stuff like that, so I guess that sort of helps.
You're a voracious reader. What are your favorite books?
Osment: The Lord of the Rings [is] probably my favorite series of books. Also, Killer Angels, great war book. And Ender's Game. ...
I'm excited to see [the Rings movies]. ... I'm interested in the Harry Potter books, and I think it's going to be hard to make that into a good movie. I'm sort of not really anticipating seeing that, because it's going to sort of take away ... from that magic when you first read it. But with Lord of the Rings, I think that's one really rare instance where I think it could make a good movie. And what I've seen from what I've read about what they're doing, I'm pretty excited about seeing that. I'm interested to see what they can do with that ...
Do you plan to continue acting when you get older?
Osment: Yes, and not just on this side of the camera. I'd like to venture into writing, directing some time. I'm interested in doing that. ... Some of my friends at school, we're going to this summer try to shoot a small movie among ourselves. There's some pretty good talent there. ... I think it's going to be fun. Nothing too serious, just writing. I love to write.
Kathleen Kennedy, you've been working with Steven Spielberg since 1979's 1941. Is it getting any easier?
Kennedy: It doesn't become easier, because the movies that Steven makes just seem to become more complicated and more challenging. But I think just from the standpoint of the working relationship, there's a trust that is developed, and I think that that goes a long way toward making it easier to communicate and feel that you've got the confidence in, not only me being able to do the things that he's trying to execute, but also his feeling that I can do it.
I would say this by far the most challenging project that I've done with him, just in terms of the technical complications. I think it's really the overall challenge of how we had to pre-conceive and incorporate the massive amount of effects in the picture, and make it feel that it was organically connected to the rest of the movie. So that you didn't feel like you were moving out of more domestic drama, physical production, into suddenly just being aware of the effects. That we wanted very much to be able to maintain the storytelling and the emotional connection to Haley's character, and not be pushed out by the effects. So that I would say that that was a real challenge.
Was it a challenge retaining Kubrick's vision in a Spielberg film?
Kennedy: I would hesitate to say it was a challenge, because it was so much a part of the process. I think that that was more of an internal journey that Steven needed to go through, to identify the things that Stanley had spent years developing and thinking about and articulating to Steven, and then Steven finding what aspects of that he would make his own, and either retain or change or create a hybrid. So that was something that evolved. We also had the benefit of a wonderful young conceptual designer that was with us throughout the entire process of preproduction and production. His name was Chris Baker. And he'd been working with Stanley for 15 years in the development of storyboards and concept art. And so he proved to be extremely valuable to the preliminary process of designing the movie.
Can you give us examples of things in the film that are Kubrick's?
Kennedy: The whole entrance into Rouge City and really the whole sensibility of Rouge City came out of designs that Stanley had already done. Very, very elaborate drawings and whatnot. He also did a lot of the underwater and what we called the excavation site at the end. We took many of these concepts further than where it had gone, and we built three-dimensional models, which had never been done with any of the things Stanley was working on. But many of them originated with his vision.
How did Kubrick and Spielberg end up collaborating on A.I.?
Kennedy: Well, we made nine movies in England during the '80s. And obviously, when you get over into a country like England, you have people like Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, a handful of filmmakers who live there, they tend to gravitate to one another. And clearly Stanley was a real icon for Steven, in terms of the films he had made, and somebody that Steven was very anxious to spend time talking to. So they got to be great friends while we were over in England so much. And this was one of the projects that Stanley was developing. He'd actually bought Brian Aldiss' short story ["Super-Toys Last All Summer Long!"] in the early '80s, and at that time was very aggressively beginning to think about how he might make it--and abandoned [it], much the way a lot of us go through this process of development, where you can have four or five things that you think you might do, and one minute, you're aggressively working on it, and then the next minute, you're not thinking about it at all. So this process went on over a long period of time, where Stanley would be aggressively working on it, then not working on it, then talking to Steven and comparing notes.
It was really at a point that we did Jurassic Park that Stanley became extremely interested in the movie again. Because he always believed that he couldn't make the movie with a real boy, because he thought it would take so long, that the boy would age, and he would therefore have to do a computer-generated child. And so when he saw the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, he envisioned that the technology had made the leap necessary for him to create a computer-generated robot child. And there were numerous conversations that went on with Steven that were very specific to that.
And then they began, over time, to start talking about the story again, and at a certain point, Stanley actually had Steven come over to England and was toying with the idea of Steven directing the movie then, because he felt that it was much more Steven's sensibilities than his, and that he would produce it. So they toyed with that idea for a while. And then each of them went off and did other projects. And then, unfortunately, Stanley passed away, and his wife came to Steven and said, "Please, I know the two of you had these ongoing conversations, and he would have liked nothing more than to see you make the movie."
What was left from Kubrick?
Kennedy: There was a very detailed story treatment that was done by Ian Watson, who worked with Stanley over a long period of time. And Steven used that, and a lot of Stanley's notes, when he sat down and began the process of writing the screenplay. But a number of the scenes were not evolved. A number of the scenes weren't used. And Steven really did structure the movie in his vision, in the way that he wanted to tell the story.
Did you really feel Kubrick' presence during the making of the movie?
Kennedy: I really attribute that to Steven's incredible knowledge of movies. I mean, he has a photographic memory in terms of the way different techniques apply to different filmmakers. So he was extremely well schooled and familiar with what Stanley's style was. And I think that certain shot designs that we would set up were very much influenced by what Steven felt how Stanley might approach that shot. And I think that comes from Steven's eclectic sensibilities. Because he's done so many different kinds of movies. It's something that he can incorporate in a way that he can make it still his own, but it's clearly by Stanley. There's a great shot that's so obvious to me, which is when Frances turns and sees the kids go into the pool. The one that whips around. That's classic Kubrick.
The film is violent in places. Were you concerned about children seeing A.I.?
Kennedy: I think that it is very much--and this is where I wish more parents paid attention to ratings--a PG-13 movie. I think that it is a perfectly defined PG-13 movie, and I think the kids that are anywhere from 8 to 13, it's questionable. And I do realize--and I think Steven does too, and it's a difficult quandary--that because it's him, and because there's a child in the movie, there's a tendency to think, "Oh, gee, this may be for younger children." And it's not. And the only thing you can hope for is that parents take part of the responsibility and see the movie first and then decide for themselves whether it's appropriate for their kids.
But both Steven and I have kids. We've talked about this incessantly. It's the difficulty you face as a filmmaker, because you can't make movies that you know are going to appeal to young adults and adults, and then feel that you have to make choices that are OK for 6-year-olds. It's a really tough dilemma. And then you're also faced with the dilemma that if you put a child in a movie, does that immediately then have to be a children's film? Because there are fantastic adult movies made through the eyes of children. And Steven's done a remarkable job of making those kinds of movies. So you're right, it's a dilemma, and we may end up getting some flak for it. I don't know what more we could have done. We've been extremely careful about how we've constructed the advertising and the campaign so as to not in any way try to target young children in what we're trying to do. But we show Haley, so some people are going to jump to that conclusion.
Why was there so much secrecy surrounding the production of A.I.?
Kennedy: Steven and Kubrick, one word. Really, from the beginning, Steven wanted to acknowledge that that's what Stanley would have done. And so he said, "Because that's how Stanley would operate, that's how we're going to operate." So we didn't give anybody a script.
The rock band Ministry appears in the Flesh Fair sequence. It was one of Kubrick's favorite bands. Was that the plan going in?
Kennedy: We only find out that Kubrick had been interested in Ministry after the fact. I wish we could take credit for that. But no, that was purely a coincidence. It was interesting, because we started looking at groups like Nine Inch Nails, and then Steven made a very definitive point that he didn't want somebody incredibly recognizable in the movie, so we went to sort of the genesis of that kind of music, and discovered Ministry, which I have to admit I didn't know a whole lot about. ... And we investigated whether these guys might be interested in doing this, and they were. And they ended up writing the song, and it actually turned into a very good relationship with these guys.
Were you involved at all in the elaborate Internet game that has evolved concerning the universe of A.I.?
Kennedy: No, I wish I had that kind of a brain. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? It's very intricate.
What can you tell us about the fourth Indiana Jones movie?
Kennedy: I just have to tell you that I wish there was a script and everybody could get excited that we're about to shoot the fourth Indiana Jones movie, but we don't have a script. It could happen. Everybody would like to see it happen, but until there's a script that everybody's happy with, it won't happen.
You're also producing Jurassic Park III, which is directed by Joe Johnston. How is it going?
Kennedy: I'm very happy. It's been such a wild ride in this, because these two movies couldn't be more different. So to go back and forth between the two has been pretty interesting and challenging.
Why didn't Spielberg direct this film, as he had with the previous Jurassic Park films?
Kennedy: I think Steven really felt that he'd kind of done that, with doing two movies in a row. And Joe Johnston, it's really ironic to have him come into this, because Joe goes way back with us at [Industrial Light & Magic]. He started out as a visual effects supervisor [on Raiders of the Lost Ark], and then decided he wanted to direct, and went back to USC and got his degree, and then he started making movies. So to have him come full circle in this has been great. And he kept begging Steven to do the second one, so when Steven did the second one, he promised Joe he could do the third. He's done a great job.
How serious is the thought of doing a Jurassic Park IV?
Kennedy: [Looks aghast] You have no idea how tired that makes me feel to think about it. I'm not very serious right now. I am in the middle of also finishing Jurassic Park, and I have two small children, and I say to Steven, "No. Stop! I can't do anymore!"
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