Leelee Sobieski - Brief Article - Interview

Interview, May, 2000 by Ismail Merchant

WINGING HER WAY

ISMAIL MERCHANT: You're connected to the most important producer in the world. [laughs]

LEELEE SOBIESKI: How can I forget my producer from A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries [1998]?

IM: Very good. So tell me about Picasso.

LS: Picasso is an Indian ringneck parakeet. She's from the Indian nobility--ringnecks were loved for their friendliness and intelligence. The interesting thing is, when they're born, they're just plain, but after, I think, one year, they get a black ring around their necks if they're male. And so we didn't know. We just called this bird Picasso, and then she didn't get a ring. So it's a female Picasso.

IM: Between your career and full-time high school, life must be very demanding for you.

LS: Everything is so crazy and strange in high school, and then everything is just insanity at work, too. It's exciting. I just finished Squelch, a suspense thriller directed by John Dahl, and My First Mister, with Albert Brooks, where I play this character who is fat and depressed and suicidal and funny. And then[ldots]anything. I want to play a bad woman, a very malicious, manipulative woman.

IM: Well, when you see Cotton Mary [the recent film directed by Ismail Merchant], you will see how manipulative the title character is. It will give you some ideas.

Ismail Merchant's next production, with James Ivory, is The Golden Bowl. Leelee Sobieski