At the peak of her powers in late‑90s Hollywood, Leelee Sobieski was everywhere – the It Girl directors swooned over, the Oscar buzz machine’s next big thing and the darling of the red carpet.
The stunning actress, now 42, lit up blockbusters like Deep Impact, teen rom-coms like Never Been Kissed, and cult horror hits like Joy Ride, proving she could do it all.
She shared screens with heavyweights from Tom Cruise to Drew Barrymore, racking up Emmy and Golden Globe nods that made her a serious contender for Hollywood’s A-list crown.
Even at just 14, Kubrick handpicked her for Eyes Wide Shut – a rare nod from one of Hollywood’s toughest directors.
But by the early 2010s, instead of movie deals or franchise roles, Sobieski – now going by her married name Leelee Kimmel – had shifted to guest spots on Drop Dead Diva and The Good Wife, plus a short-lived CBS cop drama, before quietly dropping out of Hollywood altogether by 2016.
And as fans wondered why, she gave a handful of rare interviews spilling the truth, before resurfacing a few years ago as an abstract painter, turning heads with large-scale works in New York galleries.
At the peak of her powers in late‑90s Hollywood, Leelee Sobieski was everywhere – the It Girl directors swooned over, the Oscar buzz machine’s next big thing, and the name you had to know; (pictured 2007)
She shared screens with heavyweights from Tom Cruise to Drew Barrymore, racking up Emmyand Golden Globenods that made her a serious contender for Hollywood’s A-list crown; (pictured with Cruise in 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut)
The stunning actress, now 42, lit up blockbusters like Deep Impact, teen rom-coms like Never Been Kissed (pictured with Drew Barrymore), and cult horror hits like Joy Ride, proving she could do it all
Once Hollywood’s Golden Girl
Born Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski in New York City, Sobieski was discovered by a talent scout while still in school – basically a real-life casting fairy tale.
By her mid‑teens, she was lighting up screens in hits like Deep Impact (which grossed over $349 million worldwide), Here on Earth, and Joy Ride, sharing scenes with stars like Paul Walker and Josh Hartnett.
Her starring role in the TV miniseries Joan of Arc wasn’t just another gig – it made her the youngest actress ever to play the iconic saint and earned her Emmy and Golden Globe nods at just 16.
Critics noticed: Variety called her ‘technically skilled’, and Young Artist Award groups praised her early standout performances.
She pushed herself into riskier, adult roles too – from the thriller The Glass House to indie experiments like Lying – proving she could pivot from commercial hits to art‑house fare.
Yet even as applause followed, something about the industry rubbed her the wrong way.
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Sobieski starred with Josh Hartnett in Heaven on Earth; (pictured 2000)
The actress seen here with Chris Klein in Heaven On Earth in 2000
Why Hollywood Lost Her – In Her Own Words
After years of feeling uncomfortable with the industry, Sobieski walked away from acting in 2016 and never looked back.
In a 2012 Vogue interview she explained: ‘Ninety percent of acting roles involve so much sexual stuff with other people, and I don’t want to do that.’
She doubled down in Another Magazine, saying intimate scenes made her feel ‘really cheap’ and admitting she would cry while filming romantic scenes because they felt too real and uncomfortable.
‘I started paying the rent on our house when I was 15, so I had a lot of pressure and things got complicated for me… So when I could, I stopped,’ she said.
‘It’s kind of a gross industry – well, they all are, when you examine them – but in acting you’re selling your appearance so much.
‘I would cry every time I had to kiss somebody; I couldn’t stomach it. I would think ‘I like this person, so I don’t think they should pay me to kiss them,’ or ‘I don’t like this person, so I don’t want to kiss them’. Why is my kiss for sale?’ It made me feel really cheap.’
“It might have been acting, but it was real for me as it was my first or third kiss, so it was confusing for me.
‘I don’t know why it’s legal for a child to act unless they can sell oranges or whatever legally too. It’s a crazy double standard and that’s super weird for me.
Born Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski in New York City, Sobieski was discovered by a talent scout while still in school – basically a real-life casting fairy tale; (pictured 2000)
In a 2012 Vogue interview she dropped what felt like a truth bomb: ‘Ninety percent of acting roles involve so much sexual stuff with other people, and I don’t want to do that.’ (pictured 2002 in Joy Ride)
‘Now that the MeToo movement has come forward, people understand more that it’s pretty gross and uncomfortable.’
In a candid 2018 interview with Artnet News, she didn’t regret her acting years: ‘I had a really happy childhood, and had a lot of fun, and did some work that I feel good about,’ she said – but she couldn’t ignore what acting did to her.
‘Actors end up going from one role to another with all this energy behind them, and you just become emptier and emptier and emptier – you end up having no real experiences,’ she explained.
‘To cry, you end up drawing on the experiences of another character you played.’
She even admitted that, as a mother, she had personal limits she wasn’t willing to cross:
‘I don’t want my children to look at Netflix and see me on screen in the arms of someone who’s not their dad.’
Leelee and husband Adam Kimmel, whom she married in 2010, have been raising their daughter Lewi (born 2009) and son Martin (2014) out of the spotlight, making family life her new center stage.
And at a rare 2016 appearance at a Chanel Tribeca Artist Dinner, she told UsWeekly: ‘I don’t do movie stuff anymore. I am totally an outsider! I … am just focused on my kids.
‘That’s mainly why I stopped.’
Fans Still Can’t Believe She Left
Even years later, fans can’t stop talking about her sudden exit from Hollywood.
Some mourn, as one wrote on Reddit, ‘Leelee Sobieski was about to be the biggest star ever then ghosted us… why did she quit acting?’
LeeLee made a splash in 1998’s Deep Impact
Her starring role in the TV miniseries Joan of Arc wasn’t just another gig – it made her the youngest actress ever to play the iconic saint and earned her Emmy and Golden Globe nods at just 16
‘I remember her as Joan Of Arc – there was a big tv miniseries (on CBS if I’m remember correctly), and afterwards she was very much touted as a star on the rise. And it made sense, she was outstanding’ another Reddit user wrote.
Another chimed in, ‘Glass House man she was something there. Had a huge crush back then!’
From Red Carpet to Art Gallery
These days Kimmel – after marrying fashion designer Adam Kimmel in 2010 – has flipped her life script entirely.
Her art career actually began quietly – sometimes in movie trailers lined with plastic so she could paint between takes, she told Interview,
‘I always said, ‘I don’t want to act. I paint.’
Art runs in Sobieski’s veins – she studied visual arts at Brown University, and her father, Jean Sobieski, is a celebrated painter
By 2017 she was ready to show her work publicly, debuting large‑scale abstract pieces that quickly caught attention.
In her own words, art gives her something acting never did – real experience.
‘In my paintings there’s a lot about energy and vibrations and the whole world being connected,’ she explained to ArtNet, contrasting it with the artificiality of film sets.
By 2017 she was ready to show her work publicly, debuting large‑scale abstract pieces that quickly caught attention
One of LeeLe’s works
‘If you’re on a crew and 150 people are pushing for you to fall in love with somebody else, everybody is rooting for it,’ she continued.
‘That’s the energy of a lot of people, but it’s fake.’
Critics and collectors have taken her seriously – her abstract canvases hang in respected galleries in New York and abroad.
Life Now
Leelee lives in New York, commanding attention not on screens but in galleries.
‘I had to make sure that if everybody really hated them, I would still feel good about it. This is really what’s inside of me, and I’m not trying to be anybody else.… It was almost like coming out of the closet or something!’ she told Artnet News of her work in 2018.
‘Painting was always my goal; I just kept getting distracted with work things and paying bills.’
Her pieces are abstract, showing in galleries like The Journal Gallery in Brooklyn and internationally in Paris and London.
The star majored in visual arts at Brown University, and her father, Jean Sobieski, is a renowned painter; (pictured 2024)
Leelee married Adam Kimmel in 2010; (pictured 2012)
Leelee and Adam have been raising their daughter Lewi (born 2009) and son Martin (2014) out of the spotligh; (pictured 2012)
Leelee balances her artistic life with family life – she and husband Adam have been raising their children quietly, away from the spotlight.
Hollywood may still whisper her name during reunion pitches and nostalgia rewatches, but Leelee Sobieski – the actress – has turned the page.
Daily Mail has not received a response to its request for comment from Sobieski.
