Julianne Moore Gets Tough

(CBS)  Julianne Moore has often portrayed sympathetic characters — think of the housewives she played in "The Hours" and "Far From Heaven."

But for her latest role as an FBI agent in the science-fiction thriller "Next," Moore had to strap on a gun — and a no-nonsense attitude.

"It was nice to play someone who wasn't too terribly concerned with being likeable," Moore explained to "The Early Show's" Harry Smith. "She's just doing her job."

Moore's character, Callie Ferris, needs the help of a Las Vegas magician (played by Nicolas Cage) with a very unusual gift: he can see into the near future. She wants him to apply his skill to helping her find terrorists who want to detonate a bomb in Los Angeles, but he's not interested in getting involved.

"She's [only] trying to get information," Moore said of her character. "She doesn't want to be his best friend."

Moore, who has two young children, Caleb and Liv, said she wasn't uncomfortable with the part because "it's kind of a mom role … because sometimes the mom has to be tough."

Moore had to juggle her "mom role" at home recently when she took on a demanding starring role on Broadway in the drama "The Vertical Hour."

"It was a tough gig," she said, "because you do all the stuff with the kids during the day and then go to work at night. And [then] it starts all over again. You really rarely get a chance to stop and rest."

However, now that the limited run has ended, "I got my life back a little bit."

While "working is good," she denied reports that she's planning to co-star with David Duchovny in a new film based on the TV series "The X-Files."

"You people should never believe what you read on the Internet!" she declared. "There's absolutely no truth to that. None, none."