Road Rage

By Suneal Kolluri
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Leelee Sobieski, who is both an actress and a student at Brown
University, knows as well as anyone that college is a time for
personal growth.

In her new movie, however, she also finds out that college is a
time to get chased by an insane, blood-thirsty trucker named Rusty
Nail because he is angry that your male friends decided to use him
as the butt of their practical joke.

Sobieski, one of the leads in the new movie “Joy
Ride,” has starred in such movies as “Never Been
Kissed,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and more recently
“The Glass House” and “My First Mister,”
all while preparing to attend her freshman year at Brown.

“It’s difficult to go to college, and it’s
difficult to go to college and balance the movie stuff,”
Sobieski said in a recent phone interview. “But I’m
trying really hard and I’m hoping it will work
out.”

  Photos from Regency Entertainment Leelee
Sobieski stars as one of the leads in the new thriller
“Joy Ride,” which opens in theaters Friday, Oct. 5.
“Joy Ride,” in theaters on Friday, tells the story of
three young adults on a drive home from their first year at college
who decide to play a practical joke on a group of truckers over the
CB radio.

Lewis (Paul Walker), and his brother Fuller (Steve Zahn) conjure
up a fictitious female trucker by the name of Candy Cane and
convince a horny trucker named Rusty Nail to meet her at a local
hotel. They then listen next door to gawk at Rusty Nail’s
humiliation only to wake up the next morning and discover that the
man who was staying in the room has had his jaw ripped off by Rusty
Nail.

Walker, Zahn, and Sobieski must act terrified as the diabolical
Rusty Nail chases them in his 14-wheeler.

  Leelee Sobieski, Steve
Zahn and Paul Walker evade a homicidal
truck driver named "Rusty Nail" in the new movie "Joy Ride."

“While your working, you feel a little more scared … in
terms of acting, it’s not that different,” Sobieski
said. “It’s just an emotion that you have inside of you
that you create. The most difficult thing in “˜Joy Ride’
is that Steve Zahn is really funny. And its difficult to maintain
being scared when you’re laughing.”

Sobieski has been acting since she was 11 years old. After being
discovered by Woody Allen’s casting director in her school
cafeteria, she worked hard on refining her acting skills.

Today, she has become well-known both on her college campus and
in the movie industry.

“I’m living in a dorm, so the people around me had a
little bit of a funny reaction at first,” Sobieski said.
“I don’t think they quite knew how to react around
me.”

Yet as strange as the presence of a movie star may be to her
dormmates, Sobieski finds that they are getting used to her star
status and beginning to realize that she’s just a normal
person.

“Then they realize that I pick my toe nails like everybody
else and they just don’t care any more. People are just
really respectful and nice,” Sobieski said.

Aside from the perils of hang nails and unkempt cuticles,
Sobieski has had to deal with all kinds of other difficulties that
the average college student must face.

“School’s going well … it’s difficult. I
just finished my paper last night for history of modern
architecture, got hooked up to the Internet, and got my ethernet
cable which I was too lazy to buy before,” Sobieski said.

Sobieski said that she enjoys going to Brown University and
appreciates her college experience thus far. But don’t all
movie stars go to UCLA?

“I actually didn’t know what school to go to at
first because there are so many good schools,” Sobieski said.
“It was a really, really difficult decision because I love
them all. But Brown just ended up having a really open curriculum
where I could take all the classes I wanted.”

For Sobieski, Brown is also an escape from her hectic life in
Hollywood.

“It’s nice to be around a lot of young people who
are so smart and a little bit away from the industry as
well,” Sobieski said.

As far, far away from the industry as she goes, however,
Sobieski is very much immersed in it.

With two movies coming out soon and one faring well at the box
office, Sobieski must prepare herself for the joy ride of her
life.

FILM: “Joy Ride” comes out Friday,
starring Sobieski, Zahn, and Walker. Sobieski also stars in the new
movie “My First Mister” in theaters Oct. 12 and
“The Glass House” in theaters now.