This beautiful actress left Hollywood, saying it was 'gross'

In the late 90s, a youthful and magnetic Leelee Sobieski had Hollywood and the world at her feet… and she was still in her mid-teens.

A talent scout discovered her in a New York City private school cafeteria, bringing her to the final round of casting for ‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994). Although she didn’t get the role, nabbed by a sublime Kirsten Dunst, she was already drawing attention when she was 11.

Although she didn’t get that part, she began working in TV and film the same year. Within seven years, before turning 18 (she was born June 1983), Leelee Sobieski was famous worldwide for her critically acclaimed acting and indescribable “it” factor.

Movies like ‘Deep Impact’ (1998), ‘Never been kissed’ (1999) and ‘Eyes wide shut’ (1999) turned Leelee Sobieski into an up-and-coming star ready to dominate at the beginning of the next millennium.

Already, she had worked with greats like Luc Besson, J.J. Abrams, Tom Cruise, and Stanley Kubrick. To top it off, she formed one of the coolest onscreen couples of the new century with Paul Walker in ‘Joy Ride’ (2000).

With each film release, Sobieski’s stardom seemed inevitable. She was overflowing with charisma and beloved by audiences, and she was barely 20.

But such is life in Hollywood; the magnetic Leelee Sobieski had earned enough money to chase her real dream, which was not the lure of the silver screen, where she had already triumphed. Next!

Even at the beginning of her career and the pinnacle of her Hollywood success, she seemed indifferent to fame — a clear sign that fighting to remain at the top of Hollywood wasn’t something Leelee Sobieski was interested in.

Leelee Sobieski wanted a simple life. Unlike other ‘starlets,’ she steered clear of the Hollywood drama, the red carpets and the hottest parties.

Despite her own stardom, she unabashedly showed her fangirl side when she told Jay Leno that she collected celebrity hair, considering an autograph “too impersonal.” She certainly wasn’t trying to be cool in her enthusiastic (bordering weird) admiration of others.

And just like that, she decided to leave it all and disappear to become a successful but anonymous painter. She made the move with a solid career under her belt, as well as several juicy paychecks.

Leelee Sobieski’s mother (pictured) was a film producer and screenwriter and it seemed like her daughter was following in her love for the screen. But Leelee’s stardom was only a preamble to the unexpected turn to follow in the footsteps of her dad Jean Sobieski, a French painter (and actor).

Suddenly, in 2012, ‘Leelee Sobieski’ became a relic of the past. The actress became but a fading image of a 90s star that enamored millions and left an idealized, perfect image in a far from perfect Hollywood.

Photo: Instagram (leeleekimmel)

It is nearly impossible to know what she’s been up to over the last decade unless you know her new name. Since becoming a professional artist, she’s been going by Leelee Kimmel, which she adopted following her marriage to fashion designer Adam Kimmel (not to be confused with the cinematographer and registered sex offender of the same name).

Leelee Sobieski not only had early success establishing a professional life but also a family life. In 2009, she had her first child, Louisiana Ray, who was followed up with her son Martin in 2014.

One of the reasons that led Leelee Sobieski to leave cinema was the romantic scenes. In 2012, she told Vogue that 90% of characters require doing a lot of suggestive scenes that she simply didn’t feel comfortable doing. That same year she filmed her last movie.

Her 2018 interview with ‘AnOther’ was even more candid. Six years away from the industry, she finally felt comfortable exposing the demons that Hollywood had forced her to contain during her career.

“Things got complicated for me… So when I could, I stopped,” she told AnOther. “It’s kind of a gross industry… 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.”

She made it clear that her decision to swap acting for painting was a fantastic idea. She even recalled how she used to cover the floor of her trailers with plastic so she could paint during breaks from filming.

“I kept working fervently in secret,” she told Artnet in 2018. “Painting was always my goal; I just kept getting distracted with work things and paying bills.”

“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,” she continued in the Artnet interview.

Since retiring from film, Leelee Kimmel has been pursuing art professionally and had her first solo show in 2018, which Vogue said “warrants serious merit.” She fills large canvases with color and strange shapes, which the New York Times says sometimes display a “sinister sense of paranoia.”

Just like she triumphed as an actress, she’s now doing the same in the art world. Her works have been exhibited worldwide, from New York to Paris, Shanghai to South Korea.

She’s so highly regarded that some of her pieces, according to the specialist website ‘Invaluable,’ are auctioned off for nearly $80,000.

If you’re curious to see Leelee Kimmel’s work, just take a look at her Instagram account.

Photo: leeleekimmel / Instagram

She tends to create large-scale works in which the abstract, strong colors and purity intermingle to create an unexpected yet comforting harmony.

Photo: leeleekimmel /Instagram

As she acknowledges, her paintings speak of creation and destruction. They represent the human soul., although many of them include personal messages so abstract that they are imperceptible to the rest of the world.

Photo: leeleekimmel / Instagram