It’s almost 3:00PM on a Wednesday afternoon in New York. The news headlines are all reading about a heat wave that’s blistering the city into record times of discomfort. But as I sit here in a coffee shop in the Lower Mantattan Tribeca area I find that the heat wave is the last thing on my mind. You see, I’m about to have a pinnacle moment in my life, one that’s been almost 8 years in the making. I, Eric Mitchell, webmaster for leeleesobieski.com and fan of Leelee’s is finally going to get his meeting with the object of his website’s affection.

At 3:00 exactly Leelee walks through the doors of the café and I find my heart, of course, racing. It was then that the surrealistic feeling of this whole event first washed over me. Emotions, every emotion my body can comprehend, start to boil up inside me simply because I still can’t believe it’s really happening. I can’t believe the woman I’ve only seen on the screen is standing in the same room with me, ordering her iced coffee, and then eventually comes over to me and introduces herself. “Eric? Hi, I’m Leelee”. I couldn’t help but smile. Smile not only because I couldn’t hide my joy, but also because out of all the people in the world who sadly might not recognize her in person, I was NOT one of them by any stretch of the imagination. Formalities were exchanged, chit chat commenced, and eventually I started to make my way into a few chosen questions that the fans had presented most in the past year or so on the website about what’s happening currently with Leelee. We wanted updates on her life, her health, her dog, everything! So try to follow along in the following transcript, but note that personal information that I feel should be excluded to keep it private (on both sides) has been omitted. It’s all been cleaned up, and sometimes rearranged for easier reading.

First question.  One of the board members, MateoShook, has a music project called Leelee Sobieski Rocks that he created years ago.
Yes, the song Tragic.  Yes, I’ve listened to it.
He actually put out several albums under that name!
Really? I would love to have them so then I can download them onto my computer.
I’ll be sure and see what I can do about getting them to you. He’s actually getting ready to open a website complete with all the songs to download.

Moving along, did you get your birthday comic we created for you?
I never received it, No. Really though, I have to tell you the funniest thing. Like, real life imitated the comic. I have that computer, I was wearing that color shirt, I swear on my life, my little dog was beside me and I went to the computer and, like, you guys sent me the chocolate cake the year before, it was so funny, and I went on the computer and I…I don’t know. It was like I looked down and said “oh my god, my shirt’s the same color and I have that computer” Just like that. Yes I read it online, I check the website more than you think, and I wanted to write in and say “Thank you so much” but I kind of realized you guys were going to send one and I was like “oh I don’t want to ruin it!” But I read it online and so I kept waiting but I don’t know, it never arrived.

How’s your dog doing?
She’s doing absolutely fine, she’s a year old now. I really am not like a little dog girl but I love my little dog.
I’m not a little dog person either, but there’s always a few that I tend to adore.
Yes…she’s really rascally, she’s got a big personality and she pounces. I trained her myself and she sits when I tell her to sit and she doesn’t really bark…at all. Which is good. Those little dogs can get yappy. But um, I read this article on how children of deaf parents don’t cry as much because when they cry they want attention so instead of crying they move or they bang things and I applied the same sort of principals to my dog so when she would cry unnecessarily, unless she was really hurt and I would embrace her, but if she would cry unnecessarily I would ignore her.
That’s good, I should probably try that with my dog because she barks all the time, but it’s more because she’s blind and thus scared. Well, I say my dog but it’s really a hand-me-down.
My bird is like that now, my bird has transferred over into my mother’s care.

Changing topics. Several months ago your father visited the website.
Yes, he did
And during the discussion a “family friend” said that you have a way of charming paintings out of your father. 
Who said this?
I’m not sure, someone who just claimed to be a family friend.
*laughing* it was still probably my dad posting that
So we were wondering just how many paintings you’ve been able to “charm” off of him?
Oh, well, I mean he’s my dad so I don’t really think I have to “charm” any paintings off of him, you know? I mean, I have a few of his paintings here in New York. And there’s one, that’s mine, that he’s been working on that’s in France. My dad moved back to France so there’s a lot more distance between the two of us, physically, but I don’t think so emotionally. I don’t know I mean I don’t think I “charm” paintings off my father I mean he’s my father I would think he would give them to me, you know? Willingly

And we want to know if you’re still painting?
Yes, I still paint although I haven’t painted in the last year, I’ve just been drawing more but I plan to get back on top of that.
Now that you have more time, and now that you’re feeling good.
Yes, now that I’m feeling good. But now the paintings are not as good when you’re feeling good sometimes. Sometimes they’re good when you’re really tortured, you know?
Of course.

We’ve got to ask, what’s your favorite alcoholic drink?
I like red wine. I’m a red wine girl. I mean, I like to drink a glass of red wine a day but I’m not like a crazy drinker. And, I guess if I drink hard liquor I’ll have vodka...straight.
The best way!
I like champagne too but I mostly drink red wine. White wine makes me really tipsy if I drink it.

Another question here from one of the members. If you could order a meal from any restaurant in existence, what would it be?
That’s a difficult question because for me, part of being in a restaurant is the experience of being in that restaurant and I think that whenever you order from a restaurant when it arrives at home it’s not the same thing. Unless you order like some really crappy Chinese food and then it’s like 50 times better. So if I was going to order maybe I would think of what were my favorite restaurants around the world. So maybe I would want my Kobe beef if I was in Japan, and you know, it’s just not the same thing because you want to be in the place…you know? There’s a restaurant in Providence called Capriccio’s that has really great food and they have like jazz and the waiters have been there for like years and years and there are pictures of them on the menu and…I don’t know, I would honestly probably order from some crappy Chinese place and it would be the best meal ever. Something really not very healthy from the hole in the wall spot down the block. But I like going to a really nice restaurant cause I like the experience. And it never comes prepared exactly the same. The beauty on the plate can be enjoyed yet when it arrives at home it’s not the same. I freeze a lot of things as well. Like, the best sort of summer treat, in my opinion, are the red seedless and green seedless grapes frozen…delicious.

Have any new stories about meeting fans? (Excluding this meeting of course)
Um…I just went to the Stony Brook Film Festival and there were a lot of older people in the audience, I guess. And they were confused as to how in real life I seem really nice and in the movie I seem really mean. And that I didn’t talk the same way. And one of them asked me about my “sourpuss” face, like how I was able to make such a “sourpuss” face and did I practice it in the mirror and all. I mean, that was fun but I had to explain that I was a nice a person and I was acting, and they kept coming up to me at the gathering afterwards and asking me how I was able to make such a face and it was like a lot of them, afterward. So that was pretty much it. But I mean, sometimes people come up to me in New York but they’re usually very nice and relaxed, so that’s good.

Out of all the movies you have coming out soon, and there are a lot, which ones are you looking forward to the most?
In a Dark Place was one of the most difficult ones to make cause it’s a lot of crying in the snow. 88 Minutes was with Al Pacino, so that was cool. I like playing a character in a movie that has so many twists and turns. Good thing about movies with Al Pacino is that they are often exciting. I think The Elder Son, the title The Optimist I really much prefer, but The Elder Son I think will be very charming and really sweet and funny. Heavens Fall is actually really good. I’m really evil in it. I haven’t really seen any of the other ones completed. Oh, and In The Name of the King is like this “big thing” you know.
Yeah, there’s a lot of talk around that, mostly because of who directed it.
The one thing I can say about that is that as an actual man, every single crew member loved working with him. Like, as a man he’s a producer…he’s more of a producer than a director really but he tries to make it pleasurable...the whole experience. Everybody was laughing all the time and that was really nice.

Any ambitions to one day direct or produce?
I just bought Final Cut Pro! And I got one-on-one lessons to help learn it coming up.

Future of mankind? Optimistic or Pessimistic?
Well, I think the only way to live is to think it’s optimistic. I think otherwise it’s kind of not worth living. I think you’ve got to kind of hope for the best. If you live your life pessimistically, you may not have such a good life. If you live your life optimistically and a lot of terrible things happen to you, you’ll still have moments that are really good.

What kind of music are you listening to these days?
Everything!
Everything? Even Swedish Death Metal? (sorry guys, had to ask)
Everything except for that…

How’s your brother?
He just got into Princeton…and he’s 6’4’’ now and he’s so smart and so funny and he’s so much cooler than I am. But lately he’s become so cool, like he’s become this man and I don’t know what to do with him anymore. I mean, he makes these appointments and hangs out with his friends and I’m not involved at all. And like, through the internet he’s meeting all of his classmates before he even goes to college. Which is something that never happened to me. I started not knowing anybody there but he’s going to have all these friends when he gets to Princeton.

So we have to ask, do you still collect people’s hair?
No, not so much.
And we want to know where you keep the hair you do have.
It’s in little plastic bags that are in a shoebox.
So why’d you give it up?
It was really cute and charming when I was little and then as you get older it’s not so charming anymore. When a woman asks for a lock of your hair you really thinks she’s going to do terrible things to it even if you know that she has a collection. And I think that when I was younger I really wanted somebody’s autograph badly and I thought hair was taking it to the next step.

Are you in love these days?
No…it’s fun to be in love though. It kind of depends on what you’re doing in your life too. I think sometimes when you’re in love then that’s kind of all that exists for a little moment. It’s hard to be productive. It’s hard to find a productive love. That’s what’s hard to find. I’ve been single for two years now. The first year I didn’t really like it very much. And then halfway through this second year I’m beginning to think it’s great. There are lots of smart people in New York so it makes it fun. It’s really hard to meet people in LA.

Anything you want to set the record straight on?
I needed to correct you on my birthday. You actually believe I'm a year older than I am. At the time, Stanley Kubrik was only seeing girls who were 14 for the role I ended up playing for Eyes Wide Shut.
So you were born in 83 then, no 82.
Correct. I also wanted to say that I'm not that girl in that picture with Lindsay Lohan. She has a tattoo and I don’t have any piercings or tattoos, not even my ears. Um…I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore, I’m a clean girl!
That’s great! Do you regret giving it up?
No! When I went to audition for 88 minutes I had worked with that director Jon before and I was smoking a cigarette and he said “You really shouldn’t smoke” and I said “Give me the part and I’ll quit”. And I didn’t hear anything from him for a while and then he gave me the part, so I quit. But I didn’t tell him til after we were done filming the movie that I had quit.

And with that, the interview was over. We both stood up to go yet before we parted Leelee bought me some fabulous hazelnut gelato to help me beat that dreaded heat wave I had long since forgotten. We got a quick picture, and as is customary, she was gone with two kisses.

In conclusion, I just have to say that I couldn’t have ever gotten this opportunity were it not for the fans who helped me keep the site running all these years. Your encouragement, excitement, and excellence at being the best fans I know on the web have spawned me onward even when times were dry. I love you all, and I appreciate you all just as I now really know Leelee does as well. I’ve made such great friends through this website and have had more than one life changing event occur all as a result of this site. So true, in fact, that at this stage in my life, at the age of 25, I have to say that this website is ONE OF if not THE crowning achievement of my life. While some, at first glance, might see that as being “sad” I have to correct them and tell them they’re mistaken. For as a result of this site I know that nothing has happened other than my life has truly been changed for the better.

Will there ever be another meeting? I certainly hope so! Has the site seen its “day in the sun” and is it all downhill from here? I sincerely doubt it. With so many new movies opening up, and so many new exciting things coming up, we have nothing but the highest hopes in the outlook. Time will tell the true outcome, however, but it’s time we will all enjoy spending together.

Thank you, Leelee
Thank you, Fans

-Eric Mitchell