Aunt May Talks Spider-Man

In the movie version of Spiderman, now being filmed by Raimi for a Christmas release, Rosemary Harris plays Aunt May for all she's worth. Of course, Harris is not known for big-budget movies.

Last year she won much praise for her performance in Sunshine, in which she co-starred with her daughter, Jennifer Ehle. She and Jennifer also went up against each other last year for the Tony Award — Rosemary for Waiting in the Wings with Lauren Bacall, and Jennifer for The Real Thing. Mom won. (She has one other Tony, as well.)

Right now, Harris — who's got an Oscar nomination (1994 Best Supporting Actress, Tom and Viv) has a large cameo in Blow Dry as a blind customer of the hairdresser played by Natasha Richardson. She can also be seen in The Gift. So Spiderman is something of a jump for her.

"They're making an action figure out of me!" she told me recently with emphasis on the exclamation mark. Mind you, Harris, 72, is sort of a Judi Dench-in waiting, if you will — a seasoned and celebrated theater actress who's now making her late-in-life debut in mainstream movies. She's shocked. "I would do more films if people asked me," she said. "I just don't advertise it."

She has already shot a couple of scenes with Tobey Maguire as Spidey. "I do knock on his door a couple of times, wondering what's going on in his room. Of course, he's changing into his outfit." Harris says Maguire looks very good in the red, white and blue Spiderman uniform. "But I haven't seen all of it yet, and he hasn't spun any webs."