Battling the dreaded Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 was child's play for Rosemary Harris.

As a revered stage actress for five decades on both sides of the Atlantic, Harris has squared off against some of the greatest villains of classic literature.

She has endured the jealousy of the Moor of Venice (Othello), the fury of King Henry II (The Lion in Winter) and the brutality of Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire).

"I never dreamed I would one day play a comic book character, let alone one in a film franchise as popular as Spider-Man," says Harris, who plays Aunt May.

"I have this whole new fan base of three to nine-year-olds.

"There is this little bunch of kids who live in our neighbourhood who look at me with those big puppy-dog eyes and ask if I'm wearing Aunt May's clothes," says Harris, 76, from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C.

She admits nabbing the role of Peter Parker's aunt was fate.

"My daughter (Jennifer Ehle) is a great friend of Cate Blanchett. Cate was filming the movie The Gift in Georgia and wanted me to play her grandmother in one tiny scene. I was on Broadway at the time (opposite Lauren Bacall) in Waiting in the Wings and only had Mondays off.

"It seemed that year that every Monday had an awards show or something so I kept saying no."

Blanchett persisted, waiting until Harris had a free Monday.

"When that happened, I flew down right after my Sunday matinee ... and flew back in time to start my Tuesday performance."

She then concludes her story slyly: "The gift of movie was all mine because the director was this wonderful young man named Sam Raimi. When it came time to cast Aunt May he called and asked if I'd do it.

In Spider-Man 2 in Aunt May is taken hostage by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina). He leaves her stranded on a building ledge.

"That was quite a day. I was up there in all my wires preparing to jump when the head special effects technician shouted for me to stand still."

The technician came up to inform Harris her safety wires had lost their memory.

"That's the expression he used. He had to take them off and reprogram them. When I was back in harness, I kept praying they wouldn't lose their memory again. It happens to people. It could happen to wires."

Harris proudly announces she did all her own stunts.

"They had this wonderful stunt woman who used to be Doris Day's stunt lady... but I ended up doing every one of them."

At the end of filming, the stunt co-ordinator paid Harris a supreme compliment: "He told me I was a pistol. A real pistol. In my five decades in the business no one has ever called me a pistol."


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