Although she knew Brad Pitt was going to star as the title character in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" the film posed a unique scenario for British acting beauty Julia Ormond. True, the pair would be starring in their first film together since igniting the screen in "Legends of the Fall, " but instead of appearing in any scenes with one another, she's a narrator of sorts who helps bring the unusual story of Pitt's character to life.

Opening in theaters Christmas Day, "Benjamin Button" stars Ormond as Caroline, the daughter of Daisy (Cate Blanchett), an elderly woman fast approaching the end of her life. Sitting at her mother's bedside in a New Orleans hospital room in 2003 as Hurricane Katrina begins to bear down on the city, Daisy beckons Caroline to read from a weathered, old journal to reveal how Benjamin -- a man born old who ages backward -- has profoundly affected their lives.

"She asks Caroline to read through this scrapbook and I think she is somewhat disappointed that she's spending the last hours with her mother this way," Ormond said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "But what happens in the gesture of sharing this secret is that she discovers that her mother had this other big love in her life that wasn't Caroline's father. She finally puts their relationship on an honest footing. It heals a tension between them."

One thing that viewers are sure to be floored by with "Benjamin Button" is the film's extraordinary makeup effects. Not only does the makeup enable Pitt to play a man in his 80s who grows into his youth, it amazingly transforms Blanchett into an elderly woman.

"A lot of people have asked me, 'Is that really Cate?' She was so wonderful in the film. She filled the room with this energy of an elderly lady dying," Ormond said. "It gave me an extraordinary amount to work with. God bless her for coming in at 3 o'clock every morning to get made up. She sat through hours and hours and hours of makeup. I just thought the detail in her work was so extraordinary. It was a wonderful time because she's so unpretentious, generous and smart."

Ormond said the experience of shooting her role -- which lasted about two weeks -- was like making a short film. But in this case, the director of the short film in an intimate setting happened to be David Fincher – who previously won acclaim for directing such big films as "Alien 3," "Seven," "Fight Club" and "Panic Room."

"I was really intrigued as to why he had chosen to do the film," Ormond said. "Before this, he was doing these brilliant, dark thrillers and here, with 'Benjamin Button,' it was something that was very much about life and human relationships."

But, Ormond said, Fincher more than lived up to the task.

"He's very much an actor's director. But when you understand the level of technical stuff he was dealing with and the special effects, and how he took it in stride, it's amazing," Ormond said. "Some directors are great at just the special effects, the technical stuff or framing, for example. But David just seems to have it all. It was so wonderful have that in a piece, which for many of us was deeply personal."

Ormond, who turns 44 in January, said you can't help but be affected by the themes in "Benjamin Button" on a personal level. It's the rare, sort of introspective piece of work that finds everyone -- from the actors to the piece to the viewers – reflecting on life and what to do with the time we have.

"It certainly provoked a lot of questions about age and how we live our lives," Ormond observed. "Would it be better to live our lives backward? It makes you think of the Mark Twain quote, 'Youth is wasted on the young.'"

One thing's for certain: Ormond doesn't have any problem with aging.

"I actually feel that you grow so much more comfortable as you get older. You gain experience of the world and life, and how you deal with things," Ormond said. "But there is a strange separation from the person you see in the mirror and the person you feel inside or the age you feel. But whatever -- that's life."