Whatever Happened To Lisa From Weird Science?

Kelly LeBrock was one of the sexiest women in Hollywood for a time in the 1980s. After rising to prominence as a model in the '70s and early '80s, her bombshell roles in a pair of comedies — 1984's The Woman in Red and 1985's Weird Science – made her a star. In Weird Science, she played Lisa, the "perfect woman" created by teenage geeks Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith). She followed that up by becoming the face of Pantene for an iconic ad campaign.

But shortly after she rose to fame, she all but disappeared. After Weird Science, she took a hiatus, and never had another role in a movie as popular as Weird Science ever again. The brevity of the moment when her star burned brightest, combined with how memorable she was in Weird Science, has left people wondering why she wasn't in more movies. If you've ever wondered whatever happened to Kelly LeBrock, a.k.a. Lisa from Weird Science (which is available to stream on HBO Max), read on.

LeBrock was born in New York City to an Irish mother and a French Canadian father, and raised in London from the time she was five. She started modeling when she was 15 and became a sought-after fashion model, appearing in Vogue and working for Christian Dior. She transitioned into film in the early '80s, after she and her then-boyfriend (and later first husband), businessman Victor Drai, watched the French film Pardon Mon Affaire and decided to remake it. 

Their idea became The Woman in Red, which Drai produced and LeBrock starred in as Charlotte, a model who has an affair with advertising executive Teddy Pierce (Gene Wilder). She announced herself as an aspiring Marilyn Monroe-style sex symbol with a scene inspired by the famous scene in The Seven Year Itch where a sidewalk ventilation grate blows up her dress –- in The Woman in Red, LeBrock has a grate moment of her own.

She followed up The Woman in Red with Weird Science, writer-director John Hughes' teen sex comedy. The movie was a hit (even if has aged pretty poorly in the manner of so many sex comedies). LeBrock plays Lisa, a gorgeous and intelligent woman created via computer by two horny teenage boys in an attempt to make their fantasy a reality. She exists only to help them become more confident and get girlfriends. It's not exactly the juiciest part for an actor, but LeBrock managed to elevate it. In a contemporary review, Roger Ebert called her "wonderful." In short, the movie would not be regarded as the cult classic it is today without her.

After two successful movies, it seemed like the sky was the limit for Kelly LeBrock. She did have one more iconic role, appearing in a 1986 commercial for Pantene shampoo in which she delivered the line "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," which became a pop culture phenomenon that would have people saying the line to her on the street. But Weird Science turned out to be the peak of her movie stardom — She took a few years off and her career lost momentum.

In a 1989 interview with Orange Coast Magazine, Lebrock explained where she'd been. After working nonstop since she was 16, she needed a break following The Lady in Red and Weird Science. Her father died, and she prioritized spending time with her family. She turned down many roles that were offered to her, though she auditioned for Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction, which went to Glenn Close and earned her an Oscar nomination. She started a family with action star Steven Seagal, who she married in 1987.

Her marriage to Seagal was turbulent from the start –- he hadn't finalized his divorces from his first two wives when they married, according to Yahoo. As she recounted in a 2013 interview with the Daily Mail, LeBrock "suffered a horrendous incident at the hands of Seagal that would change their relationship forever and lead to a stormy divorce." She filed for divorce in 1994, and it was finalized in 1996. LeBrock and Seagal have three children, Annaliza, Dominic, and Arissa.

After her hiatus, she returned to the screen in 1990's Hard to Kill, playing the love interest to her then-husband Seagal's character. Her roles have been sporadic since then, in movies like the 1998 thriller spoof Wrongfully Accused, the 2015 made-for-TV Christmas romance A Prince for Christmas, and most recently the mob comedy Charlie Boy.

The infrequency of her roles is at least partially by design, though, because for many years she was busy raising her kids away from Hollywood. "I didn't want them looking into any of the negative aspects of my divorce [from Seagal]," she told Closer in 2017. "So I ran for the hills, and I've basically been living in the wilderness [of Southern California] with no TV for 24 years!"

She has also been a reality TV presence over the years, making appearances on Celebrity Fit Club, Hell's Kitchen, and most recently Lifetime's Growing Up Supermodel, on which she appeared alongside her daughter Arissa, who followed in her mother's footsteps and went into modeling.

Mostly, Kelly LeBrock spends her time on her ranch, riding horses, growing vegetables, and making her own cheese and yogurt. She's also on Instagram, posting quarantine memes and charmingly unglamourous snaps of life on the farm.