Marian Seldes

Theater legend Marian Seldes appears in the first scene of "The Visitor," prompting those who know her work to sit up a bit straighter. "She can make anyone feel like a 12-year-old trying to learn how to play the piano," acknowledges writer-director Tom McCarthy. "There's a stately elegance to her."

Seldes began her Broadway career in 1947, at age 19, as a silent handmaiden to Medea. A few years later, she performed in "Ondine," which was among the first Broadway appearances by Audrey Hepburn. "That was heavenly," Seldes says. "She was like an angel put on the earth, as we all know, and not for long enough either."

Over the last 60 years, Seldes has originated roles in plays by Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and Terrence McNally, earned five Tony nominations (winning one), and even netted a Guinness Book of World Records mention for appearing in every one of the 1,799 Broadway performances of Ira Levin's "Deathtrap."

But her film roles are often so small, "I usually say, 'Be very careful the way you fix my hair in the back,' " because it's all anyone will see, she says.

When she was initially asked if she'd be interested in a small role in a film by Tom McCarthy, she knew of him as the writer and director of "The Station Agent" and agreed without reading the script. "I wouldn't have given it up for anything," she declares. "The size of the part wasn't important."

As a piano teacher trying to take Richard Jenkins' professor Walter Vale through a lesson, Seldes' Barbara has little success. In a casually cruel moment, she offers to buy his piano because he'll obviously never get very far in his efforts.

Of Jenkins, an Oscar nominee for his role, she says, "he is so selfless, there is no ego there." The scene didn't feel like work at all, she adds. "We looked at each other and knew what we wanted to do, and we did it." The shoot took one day. "One perfect day."

McCarthy, who is also an actor, rehearsed the whole cast together in New York. One day, he and Jenkins were early. While waiting for Seldes to arrive for their first rehearsal, McCarthy recalls, "Richard said, 'I gotta tell ya, I'm a little nervous.' And I said, 'I feel the same way.'"

Seldes, 80, can't believe anyone could consider her formidable. "I can never think of myself that way. I always think of myself as an 18-year-old beginning my career, all the time."

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