Criminal Minds proves actor Moore than pretty face

One would think that a chiselled hunk who regularly pops up on those lists of "TV's Sexiest Men" would have earned camera-hog status by now. But on this drizzly day in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighbourhood, Shemar Moore emerges from a black SUV on the set of Criminal Minds to utter just one scripted line.

Or three words, to be exact. "How's the mom?" he says to costar Thomas Gibson, referring to a character at wit's end following the abduction of her teen daughter.

Yes, just three measly words. Nice work if you can get it. "And the Emmy goes to . . ." Moore jokes as he ducks into a garage, where he hoists his T-shirt to allow a technician to remove a hidden mike and, in the process, provides a quick flash of his oft-photographed abs. Are those prolonged sighs we hear from the women in the crew?

Criminal Minds, the CBS drama about a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU), has come to the Bay Area for a two-day location shoot. And while the trip hardly seems worth the trouble for Moore, considering his brief scene, he's not complaining. It is, after all, a homecoming for the 39-year-old actor who was born in Oakland, Calif., attended high school in Palo Alto, Calif., and played baseball for the University of Santa Clara.

He's using the trip to catch up with old friends and his mother, Marilyn, a San Francisco resident who has accompanied her son to the set. It's also a chance to spend more quality time with fellow actor Forest Whitaker, making a highly anticipated Criminal Minds guest appearance.

"I'm a huge fan with much respect. I love watching him work," Moore says, after snapping off a couple of iPhone photos of Whitaker mugging with Mom. "He has the most unique and powerful presence."

If things go as planned, Moore and Whitaker will become Criminal Minds brethren of sorts. CBS has chosen this episode to introduce Oscar-winning Whitaker and a new set of BAU characters before potentially spinning them off into their own show next fall.

Moore, a former print model who launched his television career in 1994 on the daytime soap The Young and the Restless, admits that, for him, acting used to be more about the "fame and the parties." Now, it's about the work.

"I've had a lot of success in 16 years, but in some ways it still feels brand new because there's still so much I haven't done," he says. "I treat my career like school. The soap opera days were like high school. Now I'm in college and hopefully I'll go to grad school (feature films) and catch the bus with Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith and the others . . .

"The more I evolve as an actor, it's proof that I'm evolving as a person," says Moore. "Because the only way I can find the colours of a character I play is to allow myself to dig within myself and find those qualities."

And be so much more than just that "pretty boy."

"If how I look helps me get a date or makes you want to see the movie, I'll use it. I'm not crazy," he says with a sly smile. "But being cute doesn't keep you in the game for 16 years. I had to bring something else to the table because there's a lot of eye candy out there. Plus I'm getting older. My little six-pack has probably turned into a two-pack and eventually it's going to be a keg."