The Stunning Transformation Of Leslie Bibb
Many Hollywood stars may have always known that they wanted to become an actor. But that wasn't exactly the case for Leslie Bibb. She found it by chance and kept going with it. Bibb is a North Dakota native who grew up far away from glamorous Hollywood red carpets and film sets. But somehow, even if Bibb initially wanted to pursue something else, she eventually found herself working in film and television with some of the biggest names in the industry. Not long after that, she also became a star herself.
Since then, Bibb has been committed to pursuing acting, which she has found to be most fulfilling. "Getting to lose myself in a character is my happy place. I love being an actor. I love my job," the actress told Numéro. And while Bibb has never looked back since, her journey to Hollywood success is one remarkable story that is worth an extensive look.
Leslie Bibb was raised by a single mom growing up
Sadly, Leslie Bibb's father passed away when she was just 3, and since then, she's kept him alive in her mind. "[H]e's storied in my mind," Bibb told Salon. "He's like this romantic hero." Meanwhile, as her mom raised Bibb and her three sisters by herself, the family had to move around a few times. While Bibb was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, she spent her childhood in Lovingston, Virginia, a rural town in Nelson County. The family later moved to Richmond, Virginia.
And while Bibb had several siblings to keep her company, she didn't really hang out with them as much because of their age gap. Instead, Bibb was on her own most of the time. "I would spend a lot of time by myself and in my imagination," she recalled. Bibb also enjoyed watching "The Carol Burnett Show," although she had no idea at the time that she would be on-screen herself one day.
Instead, Bibb was determined to follow in the footsteps of her mother, who served as Virginia's director of consumer affairs. "I thought I wanted to be a lawyer and sort of segue into politics," she told Edge Magazine. Bibb herself even worked as a page in the General Assembly and hoped to attend the University of Virginia. At the time, it did look like her future was set. Bibb was completely unaware that her plans were about to change.
She became a model at 16 thanks to Oprah Winfrey
Just when Leslie Bibb thought she would end up in politics like her mom, one of her sisters heard about Oprah Winfrey's first-ever model search. "You should take a couple pictures of Leslie and send them in," Bibb recalled her sister Trish telling their mom during her Edge Magazine interview. After Bibb's mom sent out the photos, she made it all the way to the contest's top 20. Along with the other finalists, she flew out to Chicago where she appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and won Winfrey's model search. At 16, Bibb also found herself flying around the world for jobs and auditions, including one for Lee Jeans. "I was able to start paying my own way, which was a really nice thing for my mom, who'd been pretty selfless with us," she also said. Bibb also later told Winfrey, "I just want to say thank you so much for changing my life."
Meanwhile, Bibb also got into the University of Virginia. Things were working out just as she had thought they would, but her dreams were now different. And while she managed to juggle her studies with work just fine back in high school, it was impossible to keep this up in college. That's when she decided to take the semester off and move to New York. After that, everything fell into place. "The minute I got here, it made me feel like I was home," Bibb said.
Leslie Bibb discovered acting in New York
When Leslie Bibb first moved to New York, acting was still far from her mind. That said, it was all she could think about the moment she met Maggie Flanigan, a well-known acting teacher who has mentored the likes of Calista Flockhart, Kristin Davis, Piper Perabo, and KaDee Strickland over the years. As for Bibb, she met Flanigan at the William Esper Studio and found her craft.
Under the tutelage of Flanigan, she studied the Meisner technique, which teaches actors to remain present in the scene, conduct repetition exercises, and be open to improvisation. This way, an actor doesn't just rely on memory when working on a scene, and their performance can be more organic. With this in mind, Bibb also formed her own acting philosophy. "I think your job as an actor is to go in with an arsenal of ideas; a toolbox filled with ideas and have it all prepared," she told 1883 Magazine. "Then, as soon as they say action, you focus everything on your scene partner and what's happening. You see what comes to the surface based on what the other person in the scene has created in you."
Meanwhile, Flanigan also gave Bibb and her other students another important piece of advice. "Don't hang out with bad actors," Bibb recalled Flanigan telling them during an interview with Backstage. "I know it sounds silly and pompous, but you need to surround yourself with the real deals."
She made her on-screen debut in 1996
After she started taking acting classes, it didn't take long for Leslie Bibb's hard work to start paying off. Before she knew it, the jobs started to come. For starters, she appeared in the crime action "Pacific Blue," the same show that starred Shanna Moakler and a young Mario Lopez. And while Bibb was never part of the regular cast, she appeared in one episode as Nikki, a young teen who, along with her friends, was determined to teach one sleazy guy a lesson.
Around the same time, Bibb also briefly joined the cast of "Home Improvement," the Emmy-winning family comedy in which Tim Allen played Tim Taylor, a TV host who is also trying to raise a young family with three misbehaving boys. On the show, Bibb made a single appearance in the Season 6 episode entitled "No Place Like Home," in which she starred as Lisa Burton, one of the new owners of the house that once belonged to Tim's mother. And while these roles were small, they seemed enough for Bibb to get noticed. Not long afterward, the bigger jobs came.
Leslie Bibb booked her first film a year later
Following her brief TV stints, Leslie Bibb made her big screen debut in the 1997 film "Private Parts," the R-rated autobiographical comedy about TV personality and radio host Howard Stern. As Stern and his team were putting the cast together, they had Bibb audition for various roles, all while keeping the film itself under wraps. "I think that script was really under lock and key, so I didn't read the whole script," she recalled during an episode of "Collider Ladies Night" years later. "I would just get, 'Audition for this part, audition for this part.'"
In the end, Bibb booked the part of an NBC tour guide, and in the movie, she memorably takes a group of tourists to Stern's studio just in time to see a woman put an entire kielbasa sausage into her mouth. And while the scene certainly left viewers (and Bibb's group of tourists) in shock, Bibb was more concerned for co-star Althea Cassidy, who had to do several takes of the scene. "I remember I think I walked up to her at some point and I was like, 'Do you need water? Are you okay?' And she was like, 'Yeah, my throat's just a little sore!'" Bibb further recalled. Despite her relatively small role, working on "Private Parts" had also been a truly memorable experience for the actor, allowing her to see Stern's incredible work ethic and appreciation of his film crew.
Soon after, she booked her first regular TV role
After "Private Parts," Leslie Bibb found herself returning to television. This time around, it was for a lead role in a teen series. Long before Ryan Murphy came up with "Glee" or "American Horror Story," the hit creator delivered "Popular," a dramedy that centered on two high school girls (played by Bibb and co-star Carly Pope) who struggle to get along. And even if that plotline sounds rather familiar, the show was groundbreaking for its time because it boldly featured characters such as a transgender teacher and a lesbian mother. "He was so smart and provocative to tackle issues that kids were really dealing with," Bibb once told The Advocate of Murphy. "Gay men and lesbians still come up and tell me how much the show meant to them."
Unfortunately, "Popular" would only run for two seasons (Murphy reportedly had plans to have one of the main characters come out as gay had the show continued). Despite its relatively short run, however, Bibb and Pope have become good friends. The women and the rest of the cast also briefly for an AIDS Walk in 2012. In just two weeks, the former co-stars also managed to raise around $30,000 for the cause.
Once Popular ended in 2001, Leslie Bibb struggled a bit to capitalize on it
"Popular" certainly helped Leslie Bibb get noticed, and she booked a film project that was shooting in New York just as the series was coming to an end. But then, 9/11 happened and the film was canceled. As a result, Bibb failed to capitalize on her exposure from the show. She also felt like she was losing her momentum. "When you're on the show, you maybe skip like two steps, and you come in and meet the director. Now you've gotta maybe go back down and still meet the casting director now," Bibb explained on "Collider Ladies Night." In fact, while she was still doing "Popular," Bibb managed to land a couple of film projects, including "The Skulls." After "Popular" and 9/11 however, landing another film role proved to be challenging.
Fortunately, some television jobs eventually came, and Bibb appeared as medical student Erin Harkins on the medical drama "ER." She also appeared as Naomi Gaines on one episode of the Ryan Murphy series "Nip/Tuck" before taking on a lead role on crime drama "Line of Fire." Around the same time, Bibb landed a recurring role on the NBC series "Crossing Jordan," playing Detective Tallulah Simmons. On the show, her character memorably shared a kiss with the show's star, Jill Hennessy. "I remember being so nervous — not nervous to kiss a woman but because I wanted to be a good kisser for her!" Bibb told The Advocate.
In 2006, she got her big movie break
After taking on several television projects, Leslie Bibb was ready for another big screen role. This time, she memorably played Will Ferrell's wife, Carley Bobby, in the 2006 comedy classic "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." Bibb delivered a memorable audition (in which Ferrell even read with her off-screen) before eventually landing the role. And as she prepared to shoot the film, Bibb didn't have to look far for inspiration for her character. "I picked up affectations and quirks and physical traits for her from women I saw at Neiman Marcus, from people that I grew up with as a child, from ladies I saw in Virginia," she later revealed to Entertainment Weekly. "Also, she is a trophy wife and what better place to study trophy wives than in Beverly Hills?"
Now, Bibb may have played a supporting role in the film, but it allowed many in the industry to see her in a new light. "I think it opened the door to comedy for me. It's easy to get put into categories in this business and I feel like getting cast in that part, in that movie, changed the way some folks regarded me," she later told The Bare Magazine. Not long after that, Bibb also tried her hand at horror comedy with the film "Trick 'r Treat." The film boasts a cast that also includes Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, and Dylan Baker.
Leslie Bibb found love a year later
As Leslie Bibb's career was regaining momentum, she also met her future life partner, Sam Rockwell. Their meeting occurred by chance at the Chateau Marmont. At the time, Rockwell was shooting scenes for "Frost/Nixon" (the actor was staying at the renowned property at that time), while Bibb was meeting up with friends for dinner. In what can only be described as a meet-cute, the two saw each other and exchanged smiles. Not long after that, Bibb and Rockwell went out on their first date and since then, they have been together, supporting each other's work and calling each other "beloved."
And while they have remained together over the years, the couple has opted not to tie the knot or start a family. They are happy with the way things are despite the pressure others may be putting on them. "Leslie and I are very happy, we have good life," Rockwell told The Standard. As for their decision not to get married, he remarked, "She's in my will. I feel like we are mar-ried. We live like a married couple. I'm really proud of her."
She booked more major film roles
In the years that followed Leslie Bibb's performance in "Talladega Nights," more film projects followed. For instance, she joined Bradley Cooper in "The Midnight Meat Train," a horror mystery from Japanese filmmaker Ryûhei Kitamura. In the film, Cooper plays a photographer who comes face to face with a serial killer who chooses victims late at night. Meanwhile, Bibb plays his girlfriend.
Aside from this, Bibb joined the cast of the 2009 romantic comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic," which also stars Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Krysten Ritter, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, and John Lithgow. Based on a novel by Sophie Kinsella, the film tells the story of a young woman named Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) who ironically works as a finance journalist in New York while dealing with a shopping addiction. Meanwhile, Bibb plays Alicia Billington, Rebecca's very fashionable rival. "I loved working with our costume designer Pat Field on that movie, and I told her, 'You can put me in anything,'" she later told The Advocate. "I could always walk in high heels, but I think Pat changed the arch of my foot. I really loved playing that character."
Leslie Bibb made her Marvel debut in 2008
Around the time that Leslie Bibb was working on "The Midnight Meat Train," her manager called with a next-morning audition for what turned out to be the role of Vanity Fair reporter Christine Everhart in "Iron Man," the movie that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). She was exhausted from filming all night, but her manager insisted she throw on a skirt and go. Needless to say, the rest was history. Even though Bibb was so tired she barely remembered the audition, it still went well enough to get her the job.
And as it turns out, her character also wasn't supposed to have as many scenes as she did in the first-ever MCU film. But then, her co-star, Gwyneth Paltrow, underwent a knee procedure during production. "So my part sort of shifted and got, I think, got a little ... I mean, I was always going to be at the end, but they sort of jockeyed something, like it just sort of jockeyed in a different way some of my stuff because Gwyneth had something with her knee happen," Bibb revealed while speaking on "Collider Ladies Night." "And so maybe I got like an extra day of scenes, or something."
A few years later, Bibb reprised the role in "Iron Man 2." This time, she was also joined by life partner Sam Rockwell (who was originally considered to play Tony Stark). In the film, he played Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer.
She started producing
As she continued in the entertainment business, Leslie Bibb eventually decided to work behind the scenes as a producer too. Her first-ever project as both producer and star was the dark and twisted 2010 comedy crime "Miss Nobody," in which she played a secretary who goes on a rampant killing spree to move up the corporate ladder.
Not long after, Bibb followed this up with the 2014 dramedy "Take Care," which tells the story of a woman who turns to her ex for help after getting into an accident. As one of its producers, Bibb also had an input when it came to casting the actor who would play her on-screen ex-boyfriend. Ultimately, it was veteran actor Thomas Sadoski. "I asked my agent, 'Guidance-wise, what do you think?' And my agent is a huge fan of Tom's and he's like, 'You've got to go with really cool New York City theater actors,'" Bibb also recalled while speaking with The Moveable Feast.
A few years later, she also produced and starred in the drama "The Lost Husband" opposite Josh Duhamel. And while this was already Bibb's third time producing, working on this film was particularly hard because she lost her mother just before production started. "I was pretty cracked open, to say the least. So I really appreciate Josh because he got me through that," the star also later told The New York Post.
Leslie Bibb juggled TV and film in the years that followed
Aside from producing her own projects, Leslie Bibb also took on other big projects. Among them was the 2011 film "Zookeeper." Also starring Kevin James and Rosario Dawson, the comedy tells the story of a zookeeper (James) who tries to win back his ex-girlfriend (Bibb) with the help of the animals he's long been caring for. A couple of years later, Bibb joined the cast of the horror drama "Flight 7500." Directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Shimizu, who is best known for his work on "The Grudge" and "Ju-on: The Grudge" movies, the film tells the story of a flight that encounters a supernatural force on its way from Los Angeles to Tokyo.
Bibb also joined the cast of the 2018 ensemble film "Tag," which also starred Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, Nora Dunn, and Jake Johnson. Inspired by a true story, this action comedy centers on a group of friends who play tag every year. Meanwhile, Bibb plays Susan Rollins, the bridezilla fiancée of Jerry Pierce (Renner). "Leslie just fully committed to being the villain," director Jeff Tomsic later told /Film of Bibb's performance.
Meanwhile, Bibb also did television work, making guest appearances in the comedy "The Odd Couple," which starred Thomas Lennon and the late Matthew Perry. In addition, she also reprised her role as reporter Christine Everhart for the short Marvel series "WHIH Newsfront."
She has become quite the Netflix star
In the years that followed, Leslie Bibb also made her way to streaming, working on several projects for Netflix. For starters, she joined the cast of the horror comedy "The Babysitter." Directed by McG, the film tells the story of a boy who discovers that his babysitter also happens to be a member of a satanic cult. Meanwhile, Bibb, along with fellow veteran actor Ken Marino, play the boy's parents. Later on, both stars also returned for the sequel "The Babysitter: Killer Queen."
Not long after this, Bibb also reunited with Josh Duhamel for Netflix's superhero series "Jupiter's Legacy." On the show, the stars play a couple who deal with several issues as their children try to live up to their parents' legacy as superheroes. For Bibb, the key to her performance was to ground her character, Lady Liberty, in reality as much as possible. "You have to make a character real. You're playing somebody who's the strongest person in the world; where is her weakness? Where are her Achilles' heels?" she told Backstage.
Aside from this, Bibb also joined Hollywood couple Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone's Netflix comedy "God's Favorite Idiot." Interestingly, Bibb signed on to play the show's Satan. In approaching the character, she found inspiration in Reese Witherspoon's Tracy Flick from the 1999 film "Election." "I just knew when I read it, how I wanted to see her," Bibb told E! News. "She's very mercurial. It's like a petulant child."
Leslie Bibb has also landed other major roles outside of Netflix
Aside from her Netflix projects, Leslie Bibb also pursued other major roles outside of the streamer. For instance, she starred in comedy "About My Father," which also stars Robert De Niro, Sebastian Maniscalco, Kim Cattrall, and Anders Holm. In the film, De Niro plays Maniscalco's father, who decides to join a weekend getaway with Maniscalco, his girlfriend (Bibb), and his girlfriend's family (Cattrall plays Bibb's mother) for the Fourth of July weekend. While working with De Niro, Bibb also quickly discovered what had made him a great actor all these years, and it had something to do with his ability to improv. "If Bob [De Niro] ever goes up on a line, he just uses it and always stays on course," she later told Salon. "It seems benign to say that, but it's a pro move. It's also a move that is fearless because you're like, 'What's going to happen?'"
Meanwhile, Bibb also signed on to star in the Apple TV drama "Palm Royale." The show boasts a star-studded cast that also includes Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, and Bibb's longtime idol Carol Burnett. The actress was also tapped to join the cast of "The White Lotus" for the show's third season.