by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Leelee Sobieski is frighteningly
intellectual. At a mere 19, she is articulate, breathtakingly 
beautiful
and a movie star, yet oblivious to her stardom. Whether she's kicking butt in
The Glass House, taking a back seat to stardom in the new thriller Joy
Ride, or working in Slovakia on TV's Uprising, or in Paris
on Samantha Lang's L'Idol, this Brown University student is a unique presence.
Paul met the beautiful teenager, who also stars in actress Christine Lahti's directorial
debut, My First Mister
(set in a sleazy Hollywood motel), in an appropriately sleazy Hollywood motel.
This interview took place three weeks after the World Trade Center attack, so
. . .
CrankyCritic®: Is it difficult doing publicity
for movies in the wake of the terrorist attacks?
Leelee Sobieski: What is difficult right now is I think, 'What am I doing
here promoting a movie? What are we all doing here, working? Why am I bothering
going to the university and learn? Why aren't we all just living?' Well, this
is life. At the same time, should we postpone this? What is the right amount of
grieving time? It's difficult because you ask yourself, Should I postpone everything
for two days and show up two days later? Should I postpone everything for a week?
Or should that event be postponed for a month? What is the time? On the other
hand if you stop your life, that's what (the terrorists) want you to do. The biggest
way to win is to work hard and do good work and keep on living your life. Of course,
it will hit you and you'll be sad or you'll find joy in something and then you'll
be sad the next minute. I think that things should continue because for me, I
find it cruel to postpone things. I get really furious. In one week, everything's
going to be OK? Now you can celebrate this falseness that is the wonder
and splendor of Hollywood? It's a difficult situation. Film is a media where people
escape and I think, right now, people need a lot of escaping. To go into a theater
and jump into a film and go away someplace else is a good thing even if you're
being chased by a big trucker.
CrankyCritic®: Joy Ride is a scary
movie about a stalker-type guy. Have you ever had a stalker experience?
Leelee Sobieski: Not really to my knowledge. Hopefully, actually. There
have been some creepy people but I know that this sounds like a strange thing
to say but my fans are really nice. When I talk to them, they're really nice and
respectful.
CrankyCritic®: In Joy Ride you're
working with two very young actors.
Leelee Sobieski: They were really good weren't they? I think Steve and
Paul are really great. I think Paul is really real and honest and seems really
natural. And he's actually a smart, nice guy and same with Steve. He's really
funny and gets really scared. I think they're great young actors.
CrankyCritic®: Have you ever known anybody
like Steve Zahn's character?
Leelee Sobieski: On the sets of movies there are so many Steve type people
all over the place. In fact, the prop guy on Joy Ride was just like Steve.
He was always playing practical jokes. There comes a point when you have a shotgun
pointed at you where you're like "OK, no more practical jokes." This
is serious time. He was so professional and showed me that there was nothing
in the gun, etc. He says, I'm just going to leave you taped up and he pretends
to walk away.
CrankyCritic®:
Was it OK to let the boys have all the fun this time?
Leelee Sobieski: It wasn't fun to let them have the fun. I had the fun
too. It was nice. I really like mixing things up. I haven't talked about this
yet but we all have blond hair and blue eyes. That is so weird. I just all of
a sudden realized that. Is that interesting? You're never going to see a film
like that again. We all have blond hair and blue eyes. It's like Hitler's movie.
(laughs) It's really, really strange.
CrankyCritic®: I can't imagine it, but did you
pull any pranks on someone as a kid?
Leelee Sobieski: When I was really little, I lived in the 7th story of
a building in New York and I would take shampoo and glue and washing liquid and
I would mix them up and I would squeeze it on people who would pass by. I did
this like once or twice. Once I hit this guy and he went and told our friend at
the elevator, Chris, and Chris came up and told my mom. I had a friend over, of
course. I couldn't do it on my own. So someone else was doing it to. He said,
would your daughter ever do this and she said, "No, my daughter would never
do that. My daughter's a really nice kid." Chris said "OK. It must be
some other kid living in the building." My mom came in and asked us and we
said, "No. No. We didn't do it." I never lied and I was so worried we'd
get in trouble. She looked in the bathroom and the windowsill was covered with
shampoo. And went downstairs and apologized (to her victim) and I never did it
again.
CrankyCritic®: Ever on the receiving end of
a prank?
Leelee Sobieski: We played practical jokes on the set of Joy Ride
because it would get like
3 a.m. in the middle of a cornfield. And you're in cold and you've been (running)
all day long so you need something to let tension go to and so we would take big
corn husks and throw them at each other and try and kill each other with the corn.
I'm going to get you." And whip it across the field. (Laughs)
CrankyCritic®: Is it difficult being a celebrity
while going to school?
Leelee Sobieski: It's not so bad, actually. People normally don't stop.
I think because they know that they're going to be stuck with me for a while,
they don't say "Can I take a picture with you." They think they'll have
ample opportunity later. So they end up saying, "Hey, I really like your
work. I just wanted to let you know." And they'll walk away. The people at
university do care and at first they're a little bit strange about it, but then
they see me walking to the shower, and see my toenails, which I pick at too, and
they're ugly like everybody else's. It's a strange thing, but when you're involved
in the business, you say, "Actors are normal people too?" That kind
of attitude? Once they realize that, it goes away (snaps finger) suddenly.
CrankyCritic®: What was the title of the
poem you wrote [and read] on Jay Leno's Tonight Show?
Leelee Sobieski: It's called This Day And, All the Rest. I didn't know
how that was going to go over.
CrankyCritic®: You said you want to write. Is
this what you want to do: publish a collection of poetry?
Leelee Sobieski: I'd really like that actually. But I only write two good
poems a year. And the rest is absolute filth. It's just corny and terrible. I'd
have to go back. I have really fun poems from when I was younger, but there's
only about two each year and I lose them too. My computer just got a bug while
I was in France and I lost everything. I'm talking about 300 great pictures from
the Ghetto set in Slovakia (where I shot a TV movie called Uprising) of
people in starving makeup. I got this obsession with satellite (dishes) and I
just took pictures of satellites all over the place. Little satellite dishes on
the sides of houses and little antennas. I guess that was my satellite phase.
CrankyCritic®: Where in Slovakia?
Leelee Sobieski: Bratislava. In the winter, I really didn't like it at
all because the people had been through so much, they were so oppressed. And it
was so cold. Then the sun came out and they're the nicest people I'd ever met.
In the summer Bratislava is just this little tiny town and it was so nice. There
were all these little outdoor cafes popping up everywhere. And really cheesy 80s
nightclubs and it was just great. It was a beautiful place.
CrankyCritic®: How was that experience?
Leelee Sobieski: It was interesting. It's a very important story (about
the Jewish uprising against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto). It was the first
time I worked on a film that was an ensemble. It's strange to say, but it was
really fun to work on. There was a big bonding experience. We went through a lot
of exercises. We had this really intense two-week rehearsal process in the beginning
where everyone really bonded. The set was incredible; they created this whole
ghetto. We sat in this kind of bunker and they turned on the heat so it was like
130 degrees in there so we knew what that was like and then we stripped down to
t-shirts and it was really cold outside, and we made it really cold (inside) when
we would normally like to have the heating. So we went through those experiences.
In those situations, we would talk honestly. Of course, it was nothing like how
it really was but we also didn't like eat for a week and so we kind of ended up
bonding. All complexes kind of go away and that was a nice thing to do.
CrankyCritic®: Do you have a favorite type
of film to do?
Leelee
Sobieski: I really want to do a black comedy. My First Mister kind
of has elements of
that. I don't have a favorite genre when I go to see films as well. Really stupid
comedies, I love them, I have a great time. I like really dramatic films, scary
films, serious films, small films, big films. If the film is good, the film is
good no matter what genre, what style, what time period. A good film, a good book,
a good song. It doesn't matter. If it's Mozart or Missy Elliott. If it's good,
it's good.
CrankyCritic®: How was it working with John
Dahl on Joy Ride?
Leelee Sobieski: He's great. I really wanted to work with him. When I first
read the script it was like two years ago actually and the script was really good,
really scary, and really funny. I really enjoyed his work and I thought he could
do a great job with this.
CrankyCritic®: You had a back seat role in Joy
Ride vs. an up front role in The Glass House?
Leelee Sobieski: Back seat, literally.
CrankyCritic®: <g> How old are you?
Leelee Sobieski: 19. You have to know something: Actors never grow up.
Especially actors. I've never seen anything like this. It doesn't matter how old
they are. They're always like little boys.
CrankyCritic®: How about Albert Brooks?
Leelee Sobieski: No. Albert Brooks is grown up. He's a director too so
he enters a different field.
CrankyCritic®:
How was it working with him on My First Mister?
Leelee Sobieski: He's wonderful. It's so easy to act like I fell in love
with him. He's so smart and so funny. He's a descendent of Albert Einstein. It
shows. He's wonderful. [Actually, he's not. His given name is Albert Einstein
-- cc]
CrankyCritic®: How about working with Christine
Lahti, an actress turned director?
Leelee Sobieski: I think the actors do a good job in My First Mister.
Carol Kane and John Goodman. And Albert. It's nice to work with
someone also who is aware. All great directors most of the time are aware of the
acting craft or they aren't but they cast good actors. There's one or the other
or a combination of the two. She gave me so much freedom, which was great. And
I just ended up creating this character and jumping in. At first I thought I went
too far. Before we started shooting, when we were having read-throughs at her
house, I showed up with white eyebrows, white eyelashes, white lips and my hair
pulled up and wearing a strange outfit. I was like albino. I had no definition
whatsoever. I think I scared her kids. That was that. That was a little too scary,
I guess.
CrankyCritic®: This movie you did over the
summer -- L'Idol, its a foreign language film.
Leelee Sobieski: L'Idol. The Idol. In French.
CrankyCritic®: Why would you risk doing something
that a whole lot of people might not see?
Leelee Sobieski: It's an intimate film, which already isn't a big blockbuster
film. So I think that the people who would see an intimate small film would watch
a film with subtitles anyway. Like A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries or
My First Mister or L'Idol would all probably be a similar audience.
CrankyCritic®: Do you speak French?
Leelee Sobieski: Yeah. It's all in French. Well, my dad. .. It's all in
French. And I'm not totally fluent in French; it's OK. I make mistakes all the
time.
CrankyCritic®: What do you play in L'Idol?
Leelee Sobieski: I play an actress. That was very, very strange. It really
was actually. I felt like a schizophrenic. I play a young Australian girl living
in Paris and she is the understudy in a play. I'm having an affair with the lead
actor of the play. The person I'm the understudy for is married to the lead actor.
I don't like her. Her name is Sylvie Martin and my character is obsessed with
this. And she's living in this apartment. There's this old Chinese man who's like
74 who's her next door neighbor and they kind of become best friends. It's about
all the different characters that live in the building, whether it's the train
conductor downstairs or the little girl with her dog. It's very intimate and it's
kind of dramatic and funny too. And my character just has no base. You never know
when she's acting and when she's being real. Because of that you're left kind
of guessing as you watch her. Is that really something she's feeling? Is she playing
a game with him? Or is she playing a game with herself? You never really know
and it's really interesting. It's directed by Samantha Lang, who's this
young Australian director who did The Well.
CrankyCritic®: What are some of the important
things you've taken from directors you've worked with?
Leelee Sobieski: This is that trick question 'What have you taken from
people' and I never know. Hair.
CrankyCritic®: Hair?
Leelee Sobieski: Actually, the last film where I got people's hair was
Joy Ride. I keep forgetting and I think people might get insulted (if I
don't ask for their hair) because it's in interviews and stuff. I've got hair
in this ring. It comes from 1791 and taken in June and it actually looks just
like my hair. It's this girl called Juliana Cromwell. She was born in 1770 and
the lock was taken on her 21st birthday. This is Athena, Goddess of Knowledge.
It's a Greek coin. She's difficult to see; you've got to turn her around a little
bit and these are human teeth
CrankyCritic®: Whose are they?
Leelee Sobieski: I don't know. They were taken in the 20s. And they're
some weird orthodontic. They're clean healthy teeth.
CrankyCritic®: Why wear that ring?
Leelee Sobieski: All of a sudden I feel like it's a good luck charm or
something. I don't know why. I feel like they're protecting me. If someone comes
and annoys me and I punch them in the face and then they go to the DNA office,
they can't trace me back. (Laughs)
CrankyCritic®: Let's try again. What I have
taken from directors I've worked with is . . .
Leelee Sobieski: I never really know what I've taken. You learn through
the pores of your skin. Through experience and watching. What you end up taking
consciously from people on the set is the way they respect other people or how
they treat other people. The way they ask other people's opinions. Someone like
a Kubrick is so confident -- and they say he controlled everything. Yeah. I would
control everything too. If you're going to have a film and it's your baby, you're
not going to let your baby be in somebody else's hands because all of a sudden
it's the end of the road. On the set he was so open and would ask everyone their
opinion and their suggestions and if he felt that someone had a good idea, boom,
he would use it. In Eyes Wide Shut, my character's walking away and she
goes, 'Mmm? Like, later, maybe upstairs? Hey?' That wasn't in the script. He said,
'Leelee, what do you think?' And I said, 'what if when I walk away, I go, like
this (doing the turning pose)' and he said, 'Let's try it.' And he liked it so
he used it. He asked me something else and I'm sure I had some terrible idea,
and he said, 'No, that doesn't make any sense at all. What are you talking about?'
CrankyCritic®: Any advice for acting students?
Leelee Sobieski: (whispers jokingly) Stay away. You have to live your life.
If you're a teenager you can try and do the University thing as well because it's
not always going to work out and you're not always going to have luck with you.
You can be the most talented actor, director, writer, painter, potter, accountant,
and then you can suddenly not have love with you and you don't have success. If
you're a teen that wants to get into Hollywood, you better have something to back
you up. Or have something else that you're interested in. I have the luck that's
with me now so I'm going away to college for six months. If there's some wonderful
film for the second semester, I'll do it. But I'm also going to live my life and
do both. Acting is drawing on life. If you're going to play a reporter, do some
reporting. If you're going to play someone who makes plastic cups, drink out of
plastic cups and learn how to make them.
