LEELEE'S MAGIC MOMENT; 16-YEAR-OLD SOBIESKI TACKLES TEEN LIFE IN `NEVER BEEN KISSED,' SAINTHOOD IN TV'S `JOAN OF ARC'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

At the tender age of 16, Leelee Sobieski has already survived a blockbuster-sized disaster, being burned at the stake and working on Stanley Kubrick's final movie.

Even taking on Drew Barrymore with her adorability dial cranked past 10 didn't faze Sobieski, who plays a militant nerd in the new high school comedy ``Never Been Kissed.'' In fact, she enchanted the film's white-hot star and producer as thoroughly as she has impressed filmmakers ranging from Steven Spielberg to James Ivory.

``Leelee is like an old-fashioned movie star,'' says Barrymore. ``She is one of the most extraordinary people I've met in a long time. She is so passionate and has so much going on inside of her. And she's so smart; she mesmerizes me and is mesmerizing to watch.''

A little gushy, but not off the mark. Tall for her age and strikingly articulate, Sobieski stands way out from the teen-age actor crowd. Sometimes she works at it, like when she arrives for a day of interviews decked out in risky combination of thrift shop olive drab and expensive DKNY black, crowned by a green fishing hat accented with leaves and netting.

But for the most part, it's been Sobieski's natural intelligence and radiant emotionalism that have made her performances in ``Deep Impact,'' ``A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries'' and even her first film, the unremarkable Tim Allen comedy ``Jungle 2 Jungle,'' shine.

It's also why Kubrick hired her two years ago for his long-in-the-making ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' to play a role opposite Tom Cruise that was written for an actress 18, not 14.

And it's why CBS chose her for the title role of its big-budget, May sweeps miniseries ``Joan of Arc.'' Well, that and a certain shared perspective with France's maiden warrior saint.

``This is the first time Joan of Arc is being played by a virgin,'' Sobieski notes. We're guessing she's right: Other filmed incarnations include Maria Falconetti in the classic silent ``The Passion of Joan of Arc,'' a quite worldly Ingrid Bergman in the 1948 ``Joan of Arc,'' Jean Seberg (whose purity reportedly did not survive the 1957 production of ``Saint Joan'') and Milla Jovovich, who is headlining her boyfriend Luc Besson's upcoming feature film on the subject.

Asked if making a public pronouncement of such a personal matter feels strange, Sobieski shrugs.

``I'm 16 years old,'' she logically notes. ``If I was 24 and saying this, that would be sort of strange. But I'm just open and honest - although I don't think I'll tell anybody when I'm not a virgin anymore! - and I love to say fun, silly things.

``But it's also an important fact. Joan of Arc did make a vow to God to stay a virgin, and I think it was sort of good for somebody who was - not because she made a vow, but it was just her choice for now - to play the role.''

Strong, well-reasoned opinions are a Sobieski specialty. Take her take on, well, geeks.

In ``Never Been Kissed,'' Barrymore plays a dorky undercover reporter who pretends to be a high school student. Of course, she's instantly rejected by the cool clique of kids but is befriended by Sobieski's Aldys. Smart and self-possessed, Aldys proudly leads a nerdy students' support group called the Denominators. And even though her fashion sense can be charitably called unique, Aldys' willowy beauty is unmistakably evident by the closing credits.

``My upbringing always was, `Leelee, forget about the popular boys. The nerds are the smart ones,' '' she recalls. ``I was like, `But the popular boys are sort of cute, Mom.' But she was right. That doesn't mean I'm not attracted to handsome young men, but I don't know; I think it's bizarre that nerds are always portrayed as ugly ones. I don't find that true at all.''

Sobieski's mother is an American writer, and her father is a French painter of Polish and Swiss heritage. Her full name is Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta Sobieski, but she's mercifully been called Leelee since toddlerhood. Besides, ``Liliane sounds like the name of a little boutique in Paris; it's too sophisticated for a kid,'' she sniffs.

Though born and raised in New York City, she spent some of her early childhood in France and speaks the language fluently. Her English also seems to bear slight French inflections, the o's and u's more pronounced. But Michael Vartan, the French actor who plays her teacher in ``Never Been Kissed,'' describes Sobieski's precise diction differently.

``It's less an accent than the fact that she's a very bright and intense person,'' Vartan says. ``Her pattern of speech is the opposite of mallrat talk, if you know what I mean. It's a pretty rare thing for a 16-year-old girl to talk like that, so it makes you go, `What is that? That's not English.' ''

Sobieski always wanted to follow her parents' creative pursuits, and indeed she still makes abstract paintings. But when a casting agent plucked her out of her school cafeteria to screen test for a Woody Allen movie, she figured she might as well pursue the unexpected opportunity.

``It was like, this deck of cards and all these chips had been dropped in front of me, so why not play poker? Well, I didn't know the rules of the game, so of course I failed. But then I took some acting classes, learned some of the rules, and then it worked.''

Sobieski landed some TV movie gigs and a regular stint on the short-lived ``Charlie Grace'' series before graduating to movies. While the Spielberg-produced ``Deep Impact'' remains by far her most widely seen work, it was her complex ``Soldier's Daughter'' portrayal of a writer's child coming of age in the 1960s and '70s that revealed the substantial depth and breadth of Sobieski's talent.

``I guess I've grown as a young lady grows, maturing from the experiences she's had, as an actress as well,'' she reckons. ``The different roles that I've done have been like living different lives, in a way. But I don't feel fake yet, which I really like.''

A rising profile comes with rising demands. Like being burned alive for the climax of ``Joan of Arc,'' which will air May 16 and 18.

``It was really cold, actually,'' she says of the infamous execution's staging, which was filmed earlier this year in the Czech Republic. ``It was freezing, snowing. And my feet were bare! I had to keep putting these hot packs under them so they wouldn't go completely numb. There were some poles of fire in front of and behind me, but I was more afraid of the cold.''

Trying as that medieval production was, it was a happy time compared to what came next.

``I had no time to read anything in Prague, I was really working every day,'' she explains. ``So when Stanley Kubrick died, I didn't know. I had two more days of work, and when that was done my mother told me. She was so afraid I would go into town and see it in a newspaper; it was certainly something I hadn't expected.''

Sobieski put in two months on the marathon ``Eyes Wide Shut'' production in 1997. But she maintained communications with the perfectionist, England-based director - she sent him paintings, he sent her rare European chocolates - after her scenes had been shot.

Like everyone else associated with the film, Sobieski has vowed not to reveal anything about its story or what she does in it. Warner Bros. plans to release the picture, which Kubrick completed shortly before his death last month, on July 16. But she does admit that most of her scenes in the erotically charged movie are with star Tom Cruise. And no, they're not the kind that would shock St. Joan.

``I was 14 at the time,'' she notes. ``It would have been against the law for me to do anything a little out of hand there.''

That's a relief. And just one of the reasons why Sobieski has nothing but fond memories about making ``Eyes Wide Shut'' - even if the meticulous auteur of ``2001'' and ``The Shining'' did ask for 80 takes of the same shot.

``He wasn't difficult to work with at all; it was more of a joy,'' she says of Kubrick. ``I think if I was working that way for two years, I might get a little annoyed. But I only worked there for two months, and they were a great two months.

``I was such a little girl at the time, though, and I didn't really realize,'' says the wisely innocent teen. ``I almost wish that I was working with him now, because then I would ask so many more questions, and I would be so much more able to bathe in wonder. At the time, I really didn't understand what a genius he was.''

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Leelee Sobieski transcends her years

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(5) Leelee Sobieski's nerdy high school student befriends Drew Barrymore's undercover reporter in ``Never Been Kissed.''