This Actor Was A Household Name. Then She Pretty Much Disappeared.

Illustration: Jianan Liu/HuffPost; Photo: Getty Images; Alamy

Shannyn Sossamon knows you’ve Googled “Whatever happened to Shannyn Sossamon?”

I brought this up with the actor toward the end of our free-flowing, one-hour phone conversation ahead of the release of her next film, “Backspot.” And unsurprisingly, considering an earlier admission to me that she loves to disappear, she had already known people were asking this question ― and she was pretty chill about it.

“Because I’m just living my life,” Sossamon said. “But it also does make sense, too, when I really thought about it, because I was starting to feel anonymous again. I really loved that feeling. I love it so much. I love to just be like, ‘No one’s paying attention to you.’ It’s freedom.”

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In today’s fame-obsessed world, it’s not every day that you hear an actor — particularly someone who became a household name after starring in cult hits like “A Knight’s Tale” and “The Rules of Attraction” in the early aughts — express that actually, she’s cool not being noticed at all.

It’s not that she’s gone totally off the grid. Prior to our interview, what started as a quick scan of her Instagram page led me down a portal of selfies, art curation, depictions of being a mom, messages about social justice and silly videos of herself. (One caption reads: “Finally got around to making a video of me eating a carrot. Thank you for your patience.”)

On one hand, her Instagram is “an inspiration corkboard,” Sossamon said. On the other? It’s a window into her truth, her own humanity at a given time. It matches how she was throughout our conversation: an aesthete, thoughtful, engaged and able to laugh at herself about anything.

“I feel no pressure, and never have, to paint a picture that isn’t actually me,” she explained. “And that changes sometimes.”

Advertisement Sossamon portrayed the fair maiden Jocelyn in 2001's "A Knight's Tale," her first film.Columbia Pictures/Alamy

“I feel like when I’m connected to the material, I love it,” she said. “There’s nothing like it. And when I am not connected to the material, or connected to the people that are in charge of the camera, I hate it. So, it feels like love/hate. But I don’t know.”

It begins to feel like a performance. “I think there are some actors out there that love it so much that they’ll do anything with any material. They’ll have fun no matter what. And I wish I could say that, but I can’t, if I’m being honest.”

“Backspot” was different for Sossamon. She fondly remembered her experience working with Jacobs and Waterson, a first-time director whom the actor described as a “dreamer.”

“I’m a dreamer myself, and to watch D.W. do that so confidently and in such a loving way was amazing,” Sossamon said. “And the production was very professional and loving. Independent film is not like that very often, especially these days. It’s like the wild west right now.”

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I thought about that “wild west” descriptor a lot during our conversation. Independent film has always been a crucial avenue for artists to connect with audiences, particularly the most marginalized, but I suggested that moviegoers today don’t seem to be as excited for it as they were in, say, the ’90s.

“Well, because unfortunately when it is the wild west and some people have access to money, anyone thinks they can make something,” Sossamon said. “And that can go not so well. Some artists that should be making independent films don’t have access to that money.”

Fair point. Though, despite the “wild west” terrain of independent films, Sossamon has made a number of them since her early-career marquee titles. Were the slew of independent films she did — the acclaimed “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” from 2005, “Wristcutters: A Love Story” the following year, and many others — a purposeful pivot?

In short, no.

Sossamon in a scene from 2002's "The Rules of Attraction."Lionsgate/Alamy

“At first, it was considering scripts that came,” Sossamon said. “Sometimes I needed to make money. So, my manager at the time said: ‘Well, why not?’ There were a few times in my career where the ‘why not?’ hat was really easy to put on. Sometimes I really was moved and excited.”

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Then there were the other times.

“And that’s why there’s such a wide range,” she continued. “There’s a few that I really love and where I really was deeply moved. Then there’s times where you can tell that actors just need to make a living. There’s times where it’s a really wonderful casting fit, it’s just fun and it works.”

That spanned across various film budgets and formats. “And you know, I think that there’s a lot of different reasons,” Sossamon said. “But there wasn’t a conscious choice where like, ‘I am going to do independent films now,’ or anything like that.”

As she reminded me, she hasn’t done a whole lot of screen work in the past 20-plus years. Her IMDb page turns up 49 credits.

“That’s because I really do take long breaks,” Sossamon said plainly. “Or if I don’t have to work, I’m not going to do something where I’m not moved. But then sometimes I wait so long, and I’m dreaming about other things. Then I’m like, ‘Oh no, I have to work. I have to survive.’”

Another quick pause, before adding: “And I rush into something. Then — I’m not saying this proudly, by the way — it’s not the greatest.”

Advertisement Would Sossamon return to comedy? “That's a dream,” she said.Ravi Dhar

As she said all this, I thought about some of the less glowing reviews I’d read of her performances in a few films. The Austin Chronicle described her 2005 turn as a model in the rom-com “Undiscovered” as “cringing.” MTV said that her performance in the 2006 thriller “One Missed Call” was “flat,” while the BBC said it was “bland but adequate.”

“I wouldn’t give a young passionate actor this advice,” she told me, going back to the untraditional route she’s taken in her career. “I don’t think it’s the way to do it if you really, really love acting. It’s just been my journey. My journey’s been odd — really, truly. It’s a strange rhythm, but I’m OK with it.”

At around this point, Sossamon told me she had to wrap it up to do a tarot card reading (because she does that too). It didn’t even surprise me — partly because I saw that on her Instagram, and partly because it’s right in line with the unusual path she’s charted for the last two decades or so.

To use her word, tarot reading has been “grounding” for her. She’s done it for over 20 years, and started doing it publicly during the pandemic “as a coping thing,” she said. “And then I realized it was really helpful to other people, and therefore helpful to me and healing for me.”

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It’s another aspect of her identity that few people get to see in her onscreen work, only catching glimpses of it on her social media page.

Speaking of her more kaleidoscopic interests: Would Sossamon ― who made a name early in her career playing moody, sometimes troubled women (college student Lauren Hynde in “The Rules of Attraction” immediately comes to mind) ― consider doing more comedic roles?

Many people have apparently asked her the same question. “Everybody that follows me on social media wishes I would go back to the fun, goofy. Because people like to laugh.”

And?

“That’s a dream,” she laughed. “That’s what I should be doing. I don’t even like to talk about it so much, because it’s like, it’ll happen when it’s supposed to happen. But like I said, I just have a snail, turtle pace, and I’ve made peace with it.”

“Backspot” hits theaters nationwide Friday.