For Ruby Dee, living life is No. 1

Ruby Dee emerges from behind the curtained French doors of the bedroom in her downtown Ritz-Carlton suite, welcomes her guest with a broad smile and happily announces she's ready to talk.

Oh, how eager she is to have a conversation. She's hungry for any words that equate or evoke memories of the long, in-depth talks she had in her 56-year marriage with Ossie Davis before his death in February 2005.

"Oh, God, we did talk. That's what I so miss about him," the long-time and celebrated stage and screen actress says of her equally admired fellow actor and late husband. "And arguments, all kinds of things like that. We had marvelous arguments."

Dee nestles into a cushioned chair and, for more than 90 minutes, talks about the Atlanta Film Festival and her latest big-screen venture, the Sundance-winning, made-in-New Zealand "No. 2," which screens tonight and Sunday at the fest, and more --- much more.

Like racism ("It's in the atmosphere and it drops things on you"). Growing up in Harlem ("There was always some kind of excitement: riots or parades, funerals or gangsters"). Her admiration of hip-hop ("It's a new generation with new cries or new explanations of joy or longing, ambition and struggle"). Life's pursuits ("We still think we can be buried in our Lamborghinis; it's the most ridiculous thing in the world to die rich").

At 81, Dee is forever spry, her eyes and face sparkling when she senses her words connect with her visitor.

A powerful and illuminating force with the Georgia-born Davis in American theater, the couple received Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 along with Elton John, Warren Beatty, soprano Joan Sutherland and film composer John Williams. Dee has often ventured into other aspects of the arts. On television, her TV movies and miniseries include "Their Eyes Were Watching God," "The Stand" and "Decoration Day." Her big-screen films include "A Raisin in the Sun" and Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" and "Do the Right Thing."

In New Zealand writer-director Toa Fraser's "No. 2," Dee plays a Fiji-Kiwi family matriarch who one day commands her grandchildren to prepare a traditional feast at which she will name a successor. The title refers not only to the street address of her home, but to the recipient of her legacy, who will be charged with carrying on the family traditions.

"I liked the story. It was different," Dee says. "It's about people looking for their identity, a lot like African-Americans. I think she's imagining she won't be around for very long, so she's trying to get her grandchildren together so she could give them a sense of who their ancestors were and what the joy of life is. That sort of 'don't forget your roots' thing."

"No. 2" won the Sundance Film Festival's audience award for world cinema. She believes the film illustrates vital life lessons.

"The excitement of life is as much in our differences as those things we come to understand and have in common and agree on," she says. "You can't have an orchestra with all oboes. God never made one kind of anything."

Dee, who lives in New Rochelle, N.Y., in the large house she shared with Davis, made "No. 2" not long after he passed away. And she's continuing to do what she's done since her Broadway debut with Davis in the 1946 play "Jeb" --- work.

"I am so lucky to pursue those things I feel compelled to get up in the morning for," she says. "I have projects. Ossie used to tell me, 'Ruby, don't tell everything you're doing because it's too confusing.' I'm trying to learn. I have a sheet with a list of things I'm doing. Four years ago, I had about 14 things. I'm down to about eight of them now, because I'm trying to pace it."

There's her solo performance piece based on her own writings and her attempts to collect and possibly package all the episodes from her and Davis' PBS series in the 1980s, "Ossie and Ruby!"

She's finishing the organizing of a collection of Davis' speeches and letters for the book "Life Lit by Some Large Vision," a title taken from a line by W.E.B. Du Bois. It's due in September from Atria.

She also recently received a letter written by her husband that he had sent to a mutual friend.

"Ossie was describing the arts ..." she says, suddenly trailing off, as her mind embraces the memory of important words from her life partner that floated to her only after his death.

For seven long seconds, she remains as still as a windless night, her eyes focused downward and beginning ever so slightly to well with water.

"In it, he talked about the meaning of the arts to him as a black man," she says after looking up. She pauses a few seconds again before repeating his written words.

" 'What is art? Art is love. Art is perspective. Art is struggle.' Those are the things he talked about.

"I understood a lot of things listening to him."

And sometimes it is her own words --- delivered with passion and the energy of a will to live and work --- that sustain her now.

"My business is not dying," she says. "That's going to happen. I don't have to deal with that. But even if I'm trailing blood, if I've got an idea I'm going to try to get somewhere to get that idea out. Before the blood stops, you know." ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW "No. 2" Starring Ruby Dee. A New Zealand film written and directed by Toa Fraser. 7:15 tonight and 9:30 p.m. Sunday at Landmark's Midtown Art Cinema. Dee will appear at tonight's screening. Full festival information: www.atlantafilmfestival.com

Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution