LOS ANGELES—The Haley Joel Osment who appears in the Entourage movie might be unrecognizable to some folks. The small, button-cute blond kid from films like The Sixth Sense and AI: Artificial Intelligence is gone, replaced by a longhaired, bearded man who has taken to roles that are either purposely or conveniently unlike the ones he took in his first Hollywood go-round.

In a private interview with the Straight at a downtown hotel, the only evidence that he’s really the same actor who was nominated at 12 years of age for a best-supporting-actor Oscar is in his smile.

Osment’s story is one of redemption, but you wouldn’t know it from sitting down with him. The actor employs that aforementioned smile, coming off as low-maintenance and easygoing.

After Secondhand Lions (2003), his first film as a teen, reality set in. He wasn’t a kid anymore, so he did what many people his age do: he went to college, opting for NYU’s acting program.

“My sophomore year, I did a play on Broadway and I did an independent film, and that set me back so far,” says the L.A. native. “They allowed me to take these hiatuses, but then there were so many credits to make up. I was going to school basically for two years straight, so I thought I’d better just get this done instead of drawing it out for too long, so I can still graduate with the people I came in with. So it was nice to have the school be flexible with it, but the reality was I needed to finish it.”

In Entourage, opening Friday (June 5), Osment plays a character that never appeared in the long-running television show that preceded the film. As Travis McCredle, son of billionaire financier Larsen (Billy Bob Thornton), Osment calculates ludicrous demands that he forces actor Vince (Adrian Grenier) to abide by in order to get his directorial debut made.

It’s a seemingly fitting scenario for the 27-year-old, who knows as well as anyone how cutthroat the industry can be.

“It’s a side of Hollywood that I am less familiar with because of my age when I was doing those bigger studio films,” he reasons, when asked if the show is true to his view of Hollywood. “But now, being at an age and seeing more of that side of it, I think it’s fair because it doesn’t claim to be an all-encompassing picture of it. It’s a certain type of actor’s career and a certain type of people that you find. What I think is funny is that it’s become more and more accurate because the show is so influential that I think a lot of people coming to L.A. or working in the industry start to mirror it because it’s so popular.”

It’s almost impossible to get Osment to break that smile of his as he reports on topics ranging from working with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Kevin Smith to coming out of university and having to audition for parts again. As the conversation wraps up, the actor jumps out of his chair and strolls over to the balcony. He pulls open the blinds.

“What a wonderful day!” he proclaims, his smile filling the room like he’s 12 years old again.