Leelee Sobieski, the actress best known for her roles in 1990s films such as Deep Impact and Eyes Wide Shut, made a rare public appearance in New York City on 10 June to celebrate her 43rd birthday. It has been nearly a decade since she left the film industry to focus on family life and pursue a career in art.
The former star was spotted walking the streets of Manhattan wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, a blue knee-length pleated skirt, black shoes, and a gold chain necklace. With her blonde hair styled half-up and a swipe of red lipstick, she appeared youthful and ageless.
Sobieski rose to fame in the late 1990s with roles in Deep Impact (1998), Never Been Kissed opposite Drew Barrymore, and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut alongside Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. She continued acting until 2016, with her final on-screen credit in The Last Film Festival. She then retired from acting to spend more time with her family and to focus on painting.
In a 2016 interview with Us Weekly, Sobieski said: 'I don't do movie stuff anymore. I am totally an outsider! I…am just a mom and an outsider.' She married fashion designer Adam Kimmel in 2010, and the couple have two children, Louisanna and Martin. She told Vogue that she had grown uncomfortable with how women were portrayed in many scripts, explaining: 'Ninety percent of acting roles involve so much sexual stuff with other people, and I don't want to do that.'
Painting has since become her primary focus. 'When I look at [my paintings], I experience all these feelings about motherhood and being in love with Adam,' she told Vogue. Her art has been exhibited in galleries in Paris, South Korea, and New York. She told ArtNet: 'I had to make sure that if everybody really hated [my paintings], I would still feel good about it. This is really what's inside of me, and I'm not trying to be anybody else…Painting was always my goal.'
Before leaving Hollywood, Sobieski was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in Joan of Arc, and earned another Golden Globe nomination for the miniseries Uprising.
