THE WONDER YEARS HE'S YOUR AVERAGE, WELL-ADJUSTED 12-YEAR-OLD MOVIE STAR.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

While talking about his role in the new film ``Pay It Forward,'' Kevin Spacey - this year's best-actor Oscar winner - joked, ``I joined a Haley Joel Osment film.''

At second glance, though, maybe it's not such a joke. A mere 15 months ago, most people would have asked, ``Who?'' Now they at least know him as the spooky kid from ``The Sixth Sense,'' for which Haley received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. But as writer-director M. Night Shyamalan soon realized after casting him in ``Sense,'' Haley was the ``magic in the movie.'' Now the 12-year-old Valley resident is creating more magic.

In ``Pay It Forward,'' Haley plays Trevor, a boy the actor's age who lives in Las Vegas with his waitress mother (Helen Hunt), a recovering alcoholic. His teacher (Spacey) challenges the class to come up with a plan to change the world for the better - and to put that plan into action. Trevor comes up with the idea of doing favors for three people and then telling them that instead of paying him back, they should ``pay it forward,'' each doing favors for three more people - sort of a good- will chain letter.

Despite the fact that Spacey and Hunt are the big-name stars, it's Haley who ultimately carries the weight of the film. ``If he were a child actor, instead of a great actor, you wouldn't feel the way you feel (about this story),'' says Spacey.

``Haley Joel Osment is one of the most extraordinary actors I ever worked with,'' says Mimi Leder, the director of ``Pay It Forward.'' ``He has the skills of a grown man. He has the ability to listen better than most grown-up actors. And he's just this normal kid.''

That ``normal'' but very bright kid was very much in evidence during a breakfast interview last weekend.

``I like bike riding and I have a scooter,'' he says. He also describes playing video games, having a Gateway computer, going on the Internet, playing football and basketball, and playing golf with his dad, Eugene, who was accompanying him.

Dressed in a gray-striped pullover shirt and jeans, he attracts no attention from others in the restaurant. Haley alternates between the nervous energy and curiosity of a 12-year-old (``Everyone keeps looking at the plants,'' he says, popping up in the middle of a question to see what's going on outside the restaurant.) and having the smooth demeanor of a professional actor giving an interview.

``Incredible,'' he says about working with Spacey and Hunt. ``They're brilliant people, but they're just big kids inside. You know that the level of all the scenes are brought up playing opposite actors like that.''

Haley is currently working at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank on Steven Spielberg's sci-fi film ``A.I.'' The story, which was originally a project of the late Stanley Kubrick, takes place in a future in which the polar ice caps have melted, flooding the world's coastal cities. In this future, breeding is restricted and people substitute artificial-intelligence robots for children. The story focuses on a woman and her child robot, played by Haley.

Though he's tight-lipped about the project, Haley has his own love for sci-fi.

``When I was 5, I wrote my own script for 'Star Wars,' Haley reveals. ``Now I'm working on sci-fi stories, but nothing too big.''

Not surprising, considering that working on ``A.I.,'' which he expects will continue filming into next year, is a full-time job. (He's reportedly being paid $2 million for the role.)

``It's busy. I have to go to school for three hours a day when I'm not working,'' he says. ``When I am working, everything is very fast because there is a time limit (specifying how long children can work) on the set. So you get in as much as you can.''

Haley is hardly a newcomer to acting, nabbing his first commercial when he was ``4 going on 5.'' Since then, he has made numerous TV appearances, including regular roles on ``The Jeff Foxworthy Show'' and ``Murphy Brown,'' as well as parts in such feature films as ``Forrest Gump'' and ``Mixed Nuts.'' Though he started young, Haley says he was the one who wanted to act because his father was an actor.

``I held back,'' says Eugene Osment. ``Even though he started early, it was his idea and his idea to stick with it.''

Asked if he was happy with the way things have turned out with Haley, he smiles slightly and says, ``I'd say so.''

And success aside?

He steals a glance at Haley, who is being very much the energetic 12- year-old, fidgeting in his seat.

``Putting the success aside, he's learned a lot. He's grown a lot,'' Eugene says softly. ``I'm not just talking about dealing with the industry. I'm talking about the craft, understanding people and meeting people.''

Father and son appear close. During the interview, Eugene seems unconcerned about what his son might say, talking instead to a Warner Bros. representative and occasionally answering a question for Haley (``Did I see 'Perfect Storm' before or after I went to Poland?''). There is no evidence here of the dreaded stage-parent syndrome. In fact, Eugene's concern is that the interview not interfere with the two of them getting to sister Emily's soccer game.

Weekends are at a premium for the Osments since Haley is in demand. He was filming ``Pay It Forward'' when he got his Oscar nomination. He then shot ``Edges of the Lord'' in Poland, which is about a 12-year-old Jewish boy who hides with a family of Catholic peasant farmers to escape the Nazis. Now it's ``A.I.''

If all of this seems a lot for a 12-year-old, Haley likes to talk about the ``bonuses'' - traveling, going to the Oscars and meeting people. After rattling off all the countries he's been to because of his fame, Haley seems pleased to be called a world traveler and relates stories about what he's seen.

Now he gets to see Spielberg (``a great guy'') at work (``a very educational experience''). When he's on the set, Haley is accompanied by a tutor and his father. He gets his exercise on the ``A.I.'' set playing football or basketball with the four or five other kids. As for going back and forth between working and regular school, he says, so far it's been ``a good balance.''

And he says being in films hasn't interfered with having friends.

``I've made friends in (his new) school the few times I've been there this year. And all my other friends I've known since I was 2. So the business and everything doesn't really affect it.''

Haley hasn't committed to a new project to follow ``A.I.'' He says since working in the industry affects the whole family, choosing a script is a group effort, though his mother, Theresa, a teacher, doesn't always read them.

When asked what the message of ``Pay It Forward'' means to him, he seems surprised that his opinion is being solicited.

``Me?'' he asks. ``You know everybody does or tries to do as much kindness as they can do in their lives. This just sort of changes your concept of that. It's the golden rule except better - because instead of just kindness between two people, kindness is spread and affects a whole lot of people in a short amount of time.''

Before they rush off to Emily's soccer game, Eugene says that Haley has ``12-year-old kid plans for his weekend.''

Part of those plans that night was to rent a video (possibly ``Monty Python and the Holy Grail''). He doesn't get out to the movie theaters often, though.

``There's not a lot out there that kids can see,'' he laments. ``I mean, you drive by a theater, and they're all films that are just really bad or films with R, R, R, R, R, R, R. And I'm not allowed to see R movies.''

So he watches lots of videos, mostly on weekends, because during the week, while working on ``A.I.,'' ``I've been really tired; so when I get home, I go right to bed.''

Part of movie viewing includes watching classic and comedies. ``I saw 'The Great Race' with Jack Lemmon. Saw some older films like 'Vertigo,' the old 'Cape Fear.' '' This may be in preparation for a career in the film business when he gets older. ``I'll probably act, though I'll decide on a job when I grow up.''

In the meantime, Haley Joel Osment says most people don't realize who he is in public. ``Most of time, I don't get recognized,'' he says. ``I don't wear hats and stuff. It just doesn't happen that much.''

It's not that he doesn't like hats.

``I wear them at home,'' he says. ``Unless I have a hat on my head, my mom makes me comb my hair nicely. So that's why I wear hats.''

Sounds like a 12-year-old.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) He's playing it forward

Haley Joel Osment moves ahead as an actor - and a regular kid

(2) Haley Joel Osment plays a Las Vegas boy with an alcoholic mother, who is challenged by his school teacher to create and implement a plan to make the world a better place, in ``Pay It Forward.''

(3) ``I'll probably act, though I'll decide on a job when I grow up,'' Haley Joel Osment says about his undecided career plans.