<i>American Beauty</i> Bening

Not too long ago, the big question among political pundits was: Will Warren Beatty run for president? CBS This Morning Senior Correspondent Hattie Kauffman asked his wife, actress Annette Bening, and she dissembled just as deftly her husband did.

"Well, he hasn't said no yet," says Bening. "He hasn't said that he absolutely will not. So I don't know what he's going to do. You know how quickly everything changes and how quickly the landscape changes.

"So I think he's waiting to see what happens. He gave a speech last week in Los Angeles, a very good speech with lots of specifics about what his point of view is," she says.

She says she and her husband do talk about the possibility, and Bening says she would support him in doing whatever he feels is right. "That's really what is important," she explains. "He's very respectful of all the attention that this is getting. He really wants to bring the issues to attention, not himself."

When asked if she would continue her acting career if her husband ever became president, Bening points out that first lady Hillary Clinton is mulling a run for U.S. Senate.

Ironically, Bening's latest on-screen role is that of a dissatisfied wife in American Beauty, in which her cheating days come to an abrupt halt after an unexpected encounter with her husband, played by Kevin Spacey.

Bening herself is very pleased with the movie. "I was just so happy when I saw it," she says. "I did it because I loved it, and I really believed in the script, and everybody did."

"I mean, so many times, I've worked and wanted something to just come together beautifully. And often, they just don't for any number of reasons. But this time, it did, and I was just so excited."

One scene from American Beauty around the dinner table shows how members of the family are not connecting to one another.

"There's something classic in American families about the dinner table and what happens at the dinner table, and I think the writingÂ…touches on that quintessential sort of experience," Bening explains.

"I know in my house, lots of things happened at the dinner table - the fights. I can remember specific episodes in my own life as a kid," Bening says.

She says she thinks that American Beauty is a success because of how it touches the audience.

"The movie takes each person and turns them. And you say, 'Oh, wait a minute. That's who that is. That's what I didn't see.' And, somehow, that point of view, that exposure about each character, is what is so satisfying, because I think we all feel that about ourselves, too," says the actress.

"We want to be seen for who we really are, and each person has his own complex story and reasons for doing what they do," she adds.

Visit the official Web site for American Beauty.