If Dana Davis' pretty face seems more stranger than starlet, it's not that your pop-culture game is suspect. Rather, the Iowa native's mission is going as planned. The twentysomething actress stars on one of Nielsen's Top 20–rated dramas, Heroes, as Monica Dawson, a heroine with the power to emulate whomever she lays her brown eyes on. Just don't expect Davis' personal life to mirror those of her tinsel-tainted peers. "The glitz and glamour doesn't impress me,” says Davis. "I'm all about the art. I like that moment between, ‘Action,' and, ‘Cut.'”

Not that kind of cut, though. Double D has landed herself on television (The Steve Harvey Show, CSI: Miami) and movie screens (Coach Carter, Prom Night) but is almost invisible on computer monitors. Bossip isn't interested. The reason: She prefers Wii to weed and would rather spend her downtime with an Iowa yokel, not a Cali swinger. Because, chances are, Midwestern men move much slower than West Coast playboys.

You're from Iowa, a state whose main attraction is the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum and where the Caucasian population is 93 percent. How boring was your childhood?
[Laughs] It's actually a great place to grow up. I grew up in a city called Davenport, and my town, particularly, had a lot of African Americans. I think the small percentage of blacks that live in Iowa live in [Davenport] or Des Moines.

Nowadays you're a Cali girl. On the set of Heroes, what's more challenging for you: the acting or the stunts?
With Heroes it's more than just acting. I remember this stunt where they had to put me up in this ceiling. So there I am, just dangling, and I'm trying do my job, but I'm hanging from a wire! I was overwhelmed because it's very physical. I remember calling my agent crying, like, "I think it might be too much for me.”

Are you at all athletic?
I am, but it's still…I remember after that dangling scene, the next day I was so sore, because you're using muscles you've never used before. They actually had to bring somebody in to stand on a ladder and hold my head up between takes, because in that position, you had to use all your neck muscles, and I realized I didn't have any.

You've said you're professionally insatiable, but what if I interviewed some of your ex-boyfriends? Would they agree?
[Laughs] Professionally, I am; personally, I live in the moment. I love life.

Are you single?
Yes.

More From King