She's led men into battle as Joan of Arc, shared the big screen with Drew Barrymore and Tom Cruise -- and made it all look easy. Here, Leelee Sobieski slips out her armor and into something really easy.

No, 17-year-old Leelee Sobieski is not Helen Hunt's kid sister, in fact, she never even considered acting until she was spotted by a casting director at age 11. But Sobieski's proved herself a natural. "At first," she says, "I didn't understand what acting was. After a few lessons, I realized 'Oh, acting is life - I don't have to do anything.'" She has, however, outdone herself with every film. Last spring she appeared at opposite ends of the dramatic spectrum - in the comedy Never Been Kissed and in TV's tragic Joan of Arc. Kissed was cool for many reasons, not the least of them off-screen bonding with Drew Barrymore. "She's the most amazing woman," Sobieski says. "I save all her phone messages because they make me feel so good!" And playing the teen-saint Joan? "It was challenging, physically and emotionally. The armor was, like, fifty pounds, and it got chilly there - I felt like a sardine in a can." While Sobieski can't say much about this month's top secret erotic thriller, Eyes Wide Shut ("Honestly, I never saw a script!"), she does talk about her top-gun costar, Tom Cruise: "I thought he would be this big Hollywood type, but he's a perfectly normal guy who the hair and make-up people didn't have to touch." High-profile parts and colleagues may sound familiar to Sobieski by now, but she doesn't take her success lightly: "I work really hard. People may say, 'She's only 17!' but it hasn't just dropped out of the sky."