Preparing for the role of notorious womanizer Warren Beatty in ABC's upcoming Natalie Wood biopic required maximum dedication on the part of actor Matthew Settle. "I've never met Warren," he says, "but I've been with women who've said they've been with him, so I've vicariously been with him. If you look at it that way, I've actually slept with Warren Beatty."
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Unlike most Hollywood actors, Settle dares to interview without a net. The 34-year-old agnostic son of a Baptist preacher even takes on religion: "I believe there's a God," he says, "I just don't know if he knows what his name is," adding that he's grateful to have survived his "Jesus year" (Jesus died at 33). And with the breathless enthusiasm of a 12-year-old, he relays what happened after he broke his foot breaking into his own house: "Tom Hanks wrote 'You Schmuck' on my cast, then sent me flowers."
More skilled in acting than burglary, Settle earned wings for the Beatty role by garnering acclaim as Captain Ronald Speirs-he was a badass"--in Hanks's HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and later in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, as Ashley Judd's true love. His capacity to play a diverse range of characters recollects the upstart days of the actor Settle admires most. "I'd like to have a career like Jack Nicholson's," he says. "He's like a fish that can swim in any pond."
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Emili Vesilind