With short blond hair and little attention to makeup and manicures, Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie (premiering Monday, 10:30 ET/PT, Showtime) looks nothing like The Sopranos' Mob wife, a role that won her three Emmys.

"As soon as we wrapped Sopranos, I wanted to cut my hair," she says of her teased locks. "I was beholden to that color and that length for so long, I couldn't wait to get it off my head."

Says Jackie co-creator Linda Wallem: "There was this cleansing, like getting rid of the Carmela nails. I loved that show, she was so genius, but deep down I would think, 'Gee, poor Carmela, I wish she could just let it rip.' "

Falco, 45, plays a heroic yet complicated character who juggles her personal life, hospital staff and prescription drugs to get through the day.

The actress does some juggling on her own. A single mom with adopted kids Anderson, 4, and Macy, 1, she says motherhood is "better than I could have imagined, complicated and a little bit scary, but amazingly great." Her beloved dog Marley, 10, a yellow Lab/white shepherd mix, is sometimes "far better behaved than they are."

She's in remission from breast cancer, which was diagnosed in 2004, helped by treatment and "taking extremely good care of myself." She's grateful for passing the five-year "guidepost" that often signals recovery. "I've crossed paths with a lot of women dealing with this who have not been as lucky."

And she says she's been sober for 17½ years. That helps her play Jackie Peyton, the overstressed nurse who deals with her own addictions. "I know a lot of people who suffer with alcoholism, and I know the personality," she says. "I'm sure it informs my playing of the role."

Falco also is getting used to being the star: "It's so different. It really feels like changing careers in a way," she says. Sopranos creator David Chase "oversaw everything; we called him the master cylinder. We all had our input, but it ultimately trickled down to David alone in a room somewhere, I imagined, making all the decisions. I had trust in that," even when he'd instruct her to gain weight.

At Jackie, "they're asking for my input on levels I've never been asked before. That's revelatory for me, and it takes a great deal of chutzpah, confidence, to be able to say that. I really am just an actress."

Anderson feels the same way. Lately, he has been seeing his mom, holding a giant hypodermic needle, on ads around their New York home.

"He points to the posters and says, 'Mommy!' and then turns back and looks at his dinosaurs," she says. "Which is as it should be."