The movie business, so they say, is tough on actresses who dare to age past 40. The roles dry up, the young starlets take over and, other than the occasional character role, many gifted performers fade quietly into obscurity.

But Joan Allen, who was in Seattle last month to receive a tribute at the Seattle International Film Festival, is a happy exception to that rule. At 48, the tall actress with the cut-glass profile is busier than ever, appearing onscreen in a wide variety of roles. Recently, she's dabbled in comedy as the elegantly boozy mother of four in "The Upside of Anger"; mined box-office gold as an icy-chic CIA boss lady in the action thriller "The Bourne Supremacy"; and glowed as a woman entwined in a forbidden pair of arms in Sally Potter's verse drama "Yes" (opening Friday at the Seven Gables).

"Yes," which won Allen the Golden Space Needle for best actress at SIFF (and Potter first runner-up for best director), is a rarity in films these days: a wildly creative vision. It's the story of a romance between an Irish-American woman and a Middle Eastern man (Simon Abkarian), told entirely in verse — Potter's personal response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I felt an urgent need to immediately respond in the way that I knew how," said Potter in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. "To make some contribution back out into the world that went in a positive direction, given the fear and anger and negativity that was flooding worldwide and taking different forms, particularly the incredibly rapid demonization of the Middle East."

The screenplay, worked out carefully over a period of months, became a celebration of language, a Joycean stream-of-consciousness, spoken primarily by the two leads and a third character, a housecleaner (played by Shirley Henderson) who serves as a sort of Greek chorus, commenting on the action. When Allen received the script to consider, she was in the midst of shooting "The Notebook," and was initially hesitant.

"I felt a little intimidated by the verse," said Allen, relaxing in a hotel suite during her Seattle visit. "I've never done Shakespeare or anything like that on stage, never done anything that rhymed." Shortly afterward, Allen met Potter in person, and they discussed Potter's vision for the film. "She wanted it to be very conversational," remembered Allen, "and I relaxed pretty quickly."

Potter had cast Abkarian early but took a long time finding the right female lead. When she met Allen, Potter remembered, "I saw this incredible range in her, as well as her beauty, her very interesting particular form of beauty." And Potter quickly came to appreciate Allen's approach to the work. "She's an ensemble player. She's a star, but her attitude is, We're in this together. [She has] a tremendous openness and respect for the text."

The text, so carefully metered, was meticulously followed during the rehearsal process and filming. "Sometimes Sally would do tweaks with the text," said Allen. "She'd pull out scenes that she had discarded, because she had written it three or four times. [If] she would change a line, she would count it out to see if it was the right meter. I loved watching her count it out."

Longtime watchers of Allen, from her screen debut 20 years ago in "Compromising Positions" to her best-known work in "Pleasantville," "The Ice Storm," "Nixon," "The Crucible" and "The Contender" (the latter three of which won her Oscar nominations) will observe something different about her work in "Yes." "This role really allowed me to be more sensual, more open, in the way Sally shot it, with a wonderful Russian cinematographer [Alexei Rodionov]; and the way it was lit, there was kind of an openness, letting go, breaking out."

Allen affectionately remembered working with Rodionov. "He didn't talk a lot, very quiet. Not very demonstrative, but I loved him. He worked so hard, without much money. When we were saying our goodbyes, I thanked him for the way he shot me, and he said [Allen slips into a note-perfect Russian accent here], 'I like your face.' "

Her work in "Yes" took place two years ago, just before "The Upside of Anger," which presented a different kind of challenge. In more than two dozen film roles, Allen has made few comedies, and "it's scary, for me — I don't feel like I have it in my bag of tricks, so to speak." Her director, Mike Binder, was a former standup comedian, so she felt "in good hands."

A native of Rochelle, Ill. (where she was, as she told the SIFF audience, "a failed cheerleader"), Allen got her start on the stage, as a founding member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Though she did much stage work early in her career, winning a Tony award in 1988 for "Burn This," she now mostly focuses on film and is currently trying her hand at a new skill — producing. She's working with Irish writer/director Jimmy Smallhorne, hoping to get a small film called "Pushers Needed" off the ground.

Allen describes the film as a comedy about five working-class Dublin women who've never left their city. They win a trip to Lourdes, to push visitors who use wheelchairs. "It's just a wonderful story about these kind of innocent women going there," she said. As producer, Allen has approached Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, Brenda Blethyn and Claire Danes to appear in the film, and "they would all love to do it. But the budget for that cast is kind of high. Over in France, the dollar is not very strong, all those things start to come into play. And he's not a well-known director. But I have faith that eventually it will happen."

In the meantime, she's enjoying the various characters to whom her career has introduced her. Acting, she says, "feels like stepping out into another being. Then in the midst of doing that, things of yourself sort of come in, despite trying to be different. Your essence sort of pops out. It's kind of interesting to try to get away from your own essence, do something different and separate."

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com