Fascinating facts that will change how you see 'The Sixth Sense' -

Twenty years have passed since M. Night Shyamalan's film 'The Sixth Sense' hit the screens, and even now the movie still holds a special place in our hearts. To help you celebrate the director's birthday, here are some fascinating facts about his Oscar-nominated hit.

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Haley Joel Osment's tie - Aside from delivering an exceptional audition, Osment also wore a tie to his initial test, which impressed director M. Night Shyamalan. That's when the director knew he was the right actor for the role.

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Toni Collette has spooky experiences - During filming, the actress said she would always wake up in the middle of the night at a repeated-digit time, like 1:11 am, 3:33 am, or 4:44 am.

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Malcolm Crowe's clothes - Throughout the film, Bruce Willis' character only wears clothes he either wore or touched the night before his death, including his coat, blue crew neck sweatshirt, and the different layers of his suit.

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White hair - Both Osment and Donnie Wahlberg (who plays Vincent Grey) have patches of white hair. Shyamalan determined that all “spirit spotters” should have one similar physical attribute.

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Osment stayed up all night practicing for his audition - Osment stayed up the night before to read the entire script three times. When he told Shyamalan, the director asked if he meant he'd read his part three times, he said, "No, I read the script three times."

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"I see dead people" - When Cole says his famous line, the camera does a closeup on Malcolm's face, which the director considered eliminating because he thought it was too big of a clue about the fact that he was dead. But no one during the test screenings caught it, so he left it.

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Mischa Barton didn't tell her friends she was in the film - The 'O.C.' actress played Kyra Collins, a girl killed by her mother. One of the actress' friends left the theater in tears during her scene, believing Barton had actually died.

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Collette didn't realize 'The Sixth Sense' was a horror film - The actress has said she felt so moved by the emotional aspect of the movie that she didn't realize it was actually a horror film until after its release.

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It's only one of six horror films to receive an Oscar Best Picture nom - 'The Sixth Sense' was nominated for Best Picture. The only other horror films to achieve the same feat are 'The Exorcist' (1973), 'Jaws' (1975), 'Silence of the Lambs' (1991), 'Black Swan' (2011), and 'Get Out' (2017).

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Willis is actually left-handed - Throughout the film, he uses his right hand to keep the audience from noticing he wasn't wearing his wedding band.

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Willis starred in the movie as part of a settlement - A few years before 'The Sixth Sense,' the actor was supposed to star and produce another Disney film, the 'Broadway Brawler.' But Willis fired most of the crew, including the director, less than three weeks into production, costing the studio US$17.5 million.

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Willis starred in the movie as part of a settlement - To make up for the loss, Willis signed a three-film agreement in which part of his salary would go back to the studio. The other two films were 'Armageddon' (1998) and 'The Kid' (2000).

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Malcolm doesn't touch any objects - Throughout the film, Bruce Willis' character never actually touches anything, except for the Latin dictionary, and doesn't interact with anyone aside from Cole.

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The car scene was the most difficult to film - Osment told Syfy Wire that the scene toward the end where he and Collette are in the car was one of the most difficult to film. "It was raining, we were in a car and I remember being kind of rushed on that one and the tone of the scene is really delicate."

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Why didn't Cole get cold all the time? - There's a reason. The temperature only drops when ghosts get upset.

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A graphic scene was deleted to protect its PG-13 status - The scene involved Cole looking out of a window and seeing a whole hospital wing filled with disfigured and mutilated people.

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The New York Times gave it a terrible review - In the writer's own words: "And this year's 'Touched by an Angel' award for gaggingly mawkish supernatural kitsch goes to Bruce Willis's newest film, 'The Sixth Sense.'"

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Osment's father told Willis to yell at his son - Osment's father is a theater and film actor and was really serious about his son's career. So much so that he told Willis to yell at Osment to make him cry when he couldn’t manage. Willis complied and it worked.

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Osment says he wasn't afraid - He says he was somewhat desensitized during filming and that he never had nightmares or anything of the sort.

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The film is inspired by an episode of 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' - The film is based on an episode from the Canadian horror/fantasy TV show titled 'The Tale of the Dream Girl' (1994), in which the leading character continues to be ignored by everyone until he (and the audience) finds out he's dead.

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Vincent Grey's tape - The voice on the tape Malcolm listens to is in Spanish. It says: "Please, I don't want to die Lord, save me, save me."

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Liam Aiken turned down the role - The actor from 'Road to Perdition' (2002) and 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' (2004) turned it down because his mother thought the movie was too dark.

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Dr. Shyalaman - The director hails from a family of doctors, so he cast himself as Dr. Hill in the film. His scene was originally much longer, but he thought he was terrible and trimmed it way back.

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Michael Cera auditioned for the role - Cera read the lines from the scene when Malcolm Crowe tells Cole he can't be his doctor anymore. Cera said his rendition was upbeat because he auditioned without knowing the movie was supposed to be dark.

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Donnie Wahlberg lost 43 lbs to play Vincent Grey - The founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block wanted to show he was serious about pursuing an acting career.

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'Casper' almost killed the film - Shyamalan got the idea for 'The Sixth Sense' around the time of the release of 'Casper' in 1995, which almost made him give the whole thing up, thinking another ghost movie wouldn't fare well.

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The film was released on M. Night Shyamalan's birthday - 'The Sixth Sense' was released August 6, which is also the director's birthday. He took as a good sign—and he was right. The film went on to make more than US$8 million on its opening day. It's pretty safe to say The New York Times got it wrong.

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Mischa Barton throws up chewed up breakfast cereal - In the creepy scene where she throws up in Cole's tent, she's throwing up breakfast cereal mix that she would hold in her mouth and spit up.

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Marisa Tomei was almost cast as Cole's mother -

The finalists were Collette and Tomei, but Collette almost backed out because she had her mind set on a role in Martin Scorsese’s 'Bringing Out the Dead.'

See also: Actors who almost missed out on their most iconic roles.

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