(CBS) Tim Robbins is a Hollywood triple threat: a screenwriter, an Academy Award nominated director, and an Oscar winning actor. He took home the gold statue for acting in Clint Eastwood's 2003 drama "Mystic River."

He returns to the big screen in an update of H.G. Wells' alien invasion epic, "War Of The Worlds." Very creepy is how The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith describes Robbins' character, Ogilvy.

Robbins says, "That's what I really liked about reading the script and when Steven Spielberg asked me about it."

Ogilvy's family has been killed in the alien invasion and he takes refuge in the cellar of a farmhouse. When Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning's characters encounter him as they try to escape the aliens, Ogilvy becomes eerily frightening.

Robbins explains, "Here was this distillation of this terror in this basement. You had an hour of absolute horrific terror and people running from these incredibly scary aliens, and then all of a sudden it's distilled into one basement. One character and the challenge of being able to create something that was just as threatening to Tom Cruise's character and Dakota Fanning."

After living in New York City, Robbins notes tongue-in-cheek, it was not hard for him to know what creepy looks like and personify it. But he says about his character, "No. I'm not an alien. I have nothing to do with any kind of alien movement either."

In a playful mode, holding his coffee mug, he tells Smith, "You know what I've always wanted to do on an early morning show was spit out the coffee."

So Smith gave him the opportunity to work it into the interview by showing a video clip of Robbins and Cruise in an earlier film, "Top Gun." Without missing a beat, Robbins indeed spat his coffee in a amazement.

Robbins appeared in that film for about a minute at the beginning and in a few seconds at the end.

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