Actress Leelee Sobieski may be young, but she's making her mark on the world and collecting a lot of hair along the way. Rose Apodaca Jones paints it black + white.

Leelee Sobieski wants to be good. Really good. But she's more than that, as critics and fans of the 16-year-old have ruled of her recent star-making roles in Merchant-Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and the summer blockbuster Deep Impact. And for any actress, particularly one with a short (albeit impressive) resume like Leelee's, landing followup gigs opposite Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's heavily anticipated Eyes Wide Shut, alongside Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, and amongst an all-star cast as the lead of an upcoming CBS mini-series Joan of Arc is as good as winning the lottery. Maybe even better.

But on this pleasant Sunday afternoon, under an unusually pretty blue sky in the garden of Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont, the conversation ventures well beyond thespian abilities into a more existentialist zone.

"If there's a fire, would you go in and save a person? There's the people you think are special, but what about the people you don't even know? If I run into the fire and destroy myself and the person escapes - was it worth it? How about the people who love me? How will they feel if something happens to me? Sometimes I'm, 'Waaaa!'" Leelee (whose birth name is Liliane) suddenly breaks out into a wail, interrupting her characteristic stream of conscious outpouring. "Am I really a good person? I always go through thoughts like that."