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Tavis: I'm not just pleased, but I'm honored to welcome Eva Marie Saint to this program. The Oscar-winning actress has starred in seminal films like "On the Waterfront" with Marlon Brando, of course, and "North by Northwest" with Cary Grant. Not bad company. Her latest project is likely to be one of this summer's biggest films. You know it already, "Superman Returns.' The movie just hit theaters across the country. Here now a scene from "Superman Returns.'

[A film clip is shown]

Tavis: So I can only assume that the grandkids must be happy that Grandma is in "Superman Returns?'

Eva Marie Saint: (Laughter) The grandkids?

Tavis: Yeah.

Saint: What is the word? Cool. When I told them - I have three grandchildren. Cool. You know, they're not little kids. They're twenty-one, eighteen and sixteen, but they still said cool.

Tavis: It is cool because how many kids can say their grandmother is in "Superman?'

Saint: I know. It was so sweet at the opening. I invited two of them down from San Francisco. They were behind me, so I took them on the red carpet and they would hear, "What is it like to have your grandma Superman's mom?" One of my grandson's said, "She's just grandma." It was so sweet. I thought, well, that's a good answer.

Tavis: Well, to the rest of us, you are not just grandma. You are a legend. Have you learned to wear that well?

Saint: A legend?

Tavis: Yeah.

Saint: That makes me feel old and I'm really forty-seven. I go through life thinking I'm forty-seven. I don't know where that came from, but I'm forty-seven. How old are you, Tavis? (Laughter) Never mind.

Tavis: I'm going to say one thing - I'll tell you off-camera (laughter). No, forty.

Saint: Really? Good for you. My children are older than you.

Tavis: How did you enjoy - I assume you did enjoy being in "Superman Returns.'

Saint: Well, I was in Australia and my husband could go with me. He's a director. He wasn't working, so he went with me. Have you ever been to Australia?

Tavis: Only once. Had a good time.

Saint: Will you go again?

Tavis: I would love to go again. A long flight, but when you get there, it's great, it's perfect.

Saint: Yeah, take a little aspirin, walk around, go to the bathroom. Even if they say stay and you're supposed to stay, you walk around. But so many of our friends have not been to Australia. It was wonderful. I loved working with Brandon Routh. He's Superman. I really felt motherly to him and sort of fascinated by him.

He's very grounded which is wonderful because he's going to get a lot of celebrity the way it is today. He's from Iowa and I met his folks. His mom's a teacher. He'll be able to take all that. He's just so sweet and he's beautiful on that screen. Love his wonderful eyes and the thought behind it. He's a terrific Superman because he's "my son.'

Tavis: I assume that, at this point in your career, it perhaps doesn't move you in the way that it might move someone else, given that you've accomplished so much and received the highest accolades this industry can give you, I assume that it doesn't move you the way it might move somebody else to be in what is clearly going to be perhaps the blockbuster of the summer. How do you process at this point in your career being in a movie like this?

Saint: Well, how I process is it is that I'm very happy that I'm still around and still working, that I could do a movie like this with Bryan Singer, a young, wonderful director. It's one of those things that young people will see, so you feel contemporary in the whole process of doing something like this. I didn't have the blue screen. I just had my scenes and my son. So when I saw it and saw it all together, it's wonderful. I didn't have a chance to work with the other actors, Kevin Spacey, Frank Langella and Kate Bosworth, just my son. But that's the kind of movie it is.

Tavis: You don't look back on your career and think or, as my mother would say, kind of pinch yourself? I mean, I read that introduction a moment ago. I mean, you are a legend yourself. You're working alongside people like Marlon Brando and Cary Grant. Of course, those persons are no longer here, but what do you think or do you ever take time to think about the career that you've crafted here?

Saint: No.

Tavis: You don't even think about it?

Saint: No, I'm here with you. Later this afternoon, I'm doing something else. Tomorrow I'll do something else. I don't sit around and think about it. I look at that resume and I just get tired (laughter), a little exhausted, but you don't think of it when you're doing it and loving it. I love my work and that's what I do. I love my family and they're still here, thank God. I just go from project to project that I want to do.

Tavis: Why at this point when you have cemented your legacy, why should Eva Marie Saint continue to work? You don't have to.

Saint: I don't have to work. I don't even know the word retire, but this is what I do. If somebody works from nine to six every day, like my father worked six days out of seven and he couldn't wait to retire at sixty-five and then he died when he was seventy-five, so he didn't have a very long - I think the retirement killed him, actually. He was needed until that Friday. Then they gave him a watch and a dinner and, come Monday, he was out of it.

Tavis: What did he do? I'm just curious.

Saint: He was with B.F. Goodrich Tire and Rubber Company for years and years. So my feeling is that people who have that kind of job, maybe in retirement you could do things that you hadn't been able to do. But in our profession, between our projects, we can do what we want to do. There are so many things. If you travel so in our work, maybe you just want to stay home and play Scrabble or take a walk.

Tavis: You like Scrabble?

Saint: I love Scrabble.

Tavis: I'm a huge Scrabble fan.

Saint: What was the highest you ever got? No, on one turn.

Tavis: Do you want me to lie or tell the truth (laughter)?

Saint: You can lie about your age, but I want to know -

Tavis: - okay. As you know, when you use all seven tiles, you get a fifty point bonus.

Saint: You have that? You've done that?

Tavis: A few times.

Saint: Oh, I've never done that.

Tavis: Here's the part I love. This doesn't happen very often, as you know. If you can use all seven tiles on a triple word -

Saint: - I'm outta here.

Tavis: You can pull -

Saint: - do you do that?

Tavis: Not often. You asked me my highest. I think I may have done maybe 147 or 152 on one word. So if the word gives you like -

Saint: - with an X or a Z.

Tavis: With an X or a Z, that gives you forty points. You multiply that times three, triple word score, and then you add the fifty point bonus because you used all seven tiles; you can get to 142 or 152.

Saint: I just made a mental note. I'm never going to play with you. I'm never going to play Scrabble (laughter).

Tavis: Believe me, I don't do that often (laughter). You know, I started playing, though - my mother loves Scrabble and, as a child, she saw it as a way for us to build up our vocabulary. I have nine brothers and sisters, so the one game that she allowed us to play consistently was Scrabble and I still play to this day.

Saint: Good mother, good mother. My sixteen year old grandson always beats us and he's been playing since he was very young. But I can't boast. I got sixty-eight on one turn.

Tavis: That's a very high score.

Saint: With an ox, and zoo, and ax. I went around and, oh my God, you couldn't live with me then. I'm not going to tell your story. You're too good.

Tavis: That happens once every blue moon.

Saint: Okay, so call me up so I can share that.

Tavis: You mentioned earlier your husband. A couple of times you mentioned your husband and you went right past that. You've been married to the same man - and you tell me how you've done it - the same man for fifty-five years.

Saint: He's adorable and he's talented and -

Tavis: - you still feel that way?

Saint: I would say so (laughter).

Tavis: You still talk to this guy?

Saint: Oh, are you kidding? How about making love?

Tavis: Wow! Fifty-five years. So what's the secret?

Saint: I guess, if I knew, I could write a book, right?

Tavis: You should. You know something, obviously.

Saint: I know one little thing.

Tavis: What do you know?

Saint: This sounds very serious, but I believe this. I think you both have to be basically givers. Now figure that out. If you can play Scrabble, you can figure that out. You're both giving. I'm giving to you, you're giving to me, and we're both receiving. And when one is really upset about something, really try not to be that upset. You're there to help, to comfort, and the reverse is true. And have a sense of humor. And have the same feeling about children, raising your children, the same reference about money. And part of it's luck. He saw me on a subway. He saw me on a subway.

Tavis: That's how this all happened?

Saint: That's how it happened, yeah. From the back (laughter).

Tavis: I'm going to start riding the Metro (laughter). Maybe that's my problem. I'm driving my own car in Los Angeles and I need to be riding the Metro in Los Angeles. Let me ask you right quick before I let you out of here. You and your husband work together. You don't just -

Saint: No, we've done -

Tavis: - you produce projects. You do things together?

Saint: Yes, and we've done many, many plays together.

Tavis: You're doing "Fences.' Tell me about this. For those who are here in Los Angeles, yeah.

Saint: Yes, at the Odyssey Theater in Santa Monica. It's an incredible production of "Fences" with the most brilliant cast I've ever seen.

Tavis: Why August Wilson's "Fences?' Why produce that piece?

Saint: Well, my husband loves - as a director, he always wanted to do his work and he died recently, so people are doing the August Wilson plays. He always wanted to do "Fences.' It's about a family -

Tavis: - a Black family.

Saint: It's about a Black family, but it could be a white family. He was such a wonderful writer that he wasn't just writing for the Black experience, but for the white experience. The reviews have been incredible and I urge everyone to go to the Odyssey and see this show. Thursday night, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:00. You'll have an incredible experience.

Tavis: Eva Marie Saint, still busy, fifty-five years of marriage and producing plays and starring in "Superman Returns" at a movie theater near you. It is an honor to have you on the program. I enjoyed this much. One day, either I'll come to your house or you come to mine, I would love to play Scrabble.

Saint: Oh, I'm scared (laughter).

Tavis: I'm serious. I would love to play.

Saint: I don't get nervous on a set, but I get nervous with you (laughter).

Tavis: We will play sometime. Nice to meet you.

Saint: So nice to meet you.

Tavis: Honor to have you here. Thank you so much.

Saint: Thank you.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. I'll see you back here next time, though, on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and, as always, keep the faith.