The TV Chick

White Collar is back with an amazing 2nd season premiere tonight. The series stars Matt Bomer as Neal Caffrey and Tim DeKay as Peter Burke (a ex-con artist and FBI agent respectively). Burke is the only to ever successfully catch Caffrey, and they form an unprecedented partnership. Slowly but surely they become friends who trust each other, even with Neal’s shady past. The season two premiere brings a whole new mystery to the table, a new regular cast member (former recurring star Marsha Thomason) and lots of Matt Bomer. I recently had the chance to visit the set of White Collar, where Matt Bomer chatted with us about the Neal/Peter dynamic, shooting in New York, and his newfound role as a sex symbol.

So, Hilarie [Burton, guest starring on the episode we saw taping] just told us that you were one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Now, there’s no way I can live up to that. But I paid her actually, before I came in here, so I guess I’ll have to cough it up now. That’s very sweet of her, and I think she’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World herself.

We had to start out believing that Neal really loved Kate and this whole thing. But as the time went on, and now with her dead, it turns into more of like, is she a symbol, is she a mystery? Because it seems a little bit more of an obsession that a love now?
Well, what I always loved about the character is that his romantic life is where he got sloppy. It’s sort of his tragic flaw, Achilles heel. So, I truly believe, I do think Neal is a little bit obsessive-compulsive in a lot of ways. I think that’s one of the benefits and probably drawbacks of being as intelligent as he is. I think he probably over thinks a lot of things. But yeah, she was definitely an obsession, but I think in his heart he truly believed that she was the one for him. And whether it’s rational or not at a certain point, is sort of irrelevant for him. So, yeah, I think in his heart and his mind it’s love.

And we talked about this with Peter, but one of the overarching themes of last season and this coming season seems to be one of trust.
Yeah.

Neal told Peter that he didn’t want to run anymore. In your mind, do you think if he would have stayed with Peter? Do you think that that trust relationship is going to continue to develop?
Well, it’s always been my hope for the character that he’d never just jump over to the other side of the moral spectrum. I hope he always stays in the gray area and loves it and enjoys it and he’s always testing his boundaries with Peter. But yeah, trust is really one of, if not the central theme of the show. It plays into every scene in all of the different characters, and when I’m approaching the work, whether it is with Kate, you know, at a certain point it’s like how much could I trust her last year? My trust for her came into question. My trust for Peter came into question. My trust for Mozzie came into question. So, it’s something that sort of shows its face a lot on the show in all the different relationships, and I hope it continues to be a central theme. Even with the introduction of Hilary’s character, immediately we have trust issues. So, I love it. It’s fun to play because there’s a surreptitious quality to it that as an actor is fun to play. You’ve got things to hide, and things are never—it’s like a good poker game. It’s never, you can’t ever take it at face value. There are always things going on underneath, and as an actor that’s really fun to play.

You play such a brilliant criminal mind, do you ever when you’re in a bank or something, does Neal kind of pop out and you know, I could take this place?
Well, you know, one of the real bonuses we have this season is that I now have an advisor, a con artist who advises me on set on a lot of things. So, I am getting a little bit more confident with my pick-pocketing skills, and I can actually pick a lock now. So, watch out. But as far as breaking into a bank, I’m not going to try to go there, because the main difference between me and Neal Caffrey is my ass will get caught.

Does any part of you wish that you were a smidgen less attractive?
You all need to come in here and see me before I go through hair and makeup, and then we can revisit this conversation. I don’t, to be honest with you, I mean, that’s sort of an impossible question to answer. That’s [I’m an] asshole on either front or completely fake. I don’t think about it. I mean, I think as human beings we have a tendency to see some of our drawbacks more than we see our benefits. So, I don’t ever, I’ve never really thought of myself as anything special in that regard. So, thank you for that question. It’s brightening my day a little bit, but I don’t really know how to answer it.

This role has kind of made you, I don’t know, has sort of made you a sex symbol. How has that very specific kind of spotlight changed your life and your career? Do you have women coming up to you on the street?
It hasn’t—in terms of me and my life, it hasn’t changed anything really. I mean, I still live my life the same way I always have, but I—what’s important I think as an artist, is you’re always hoping that the characters you’re playing or the stories you’re telling are relating to people in some way. And there has been a certain response that people have had to the character that if they—I love it when people come up on the street and say something or stop me or talk about the character or me and Peter or whatever the dynamic is of me and Julian. So, you know, for me to say, you know, I’m not going to complain about that. Like I think it’s great and, you know, I think you’re always hoping that people are responding to the stories you’re telling. So, there’s definitely been a change that way, and I welcome it with open arms.

We’ve seen Neal do the one painting and sculpting. I was just curious if you have any experience with that or you were interested in art history before playing Neal?
I have a Master’s in art history.

Okay.
No. No. Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate that. [Believing him] Thank you. Thanks. I mean, I think I have sort of a layman’s understanding of art and a general appreciation going to the museums and visiting places around town in New York and stuff like that, but outside of that I wouldn’t say that I have any level of expertise and—my lord, if I had to sculpt the things that it looks like Neal sculpted on there, we’d be in real trouble. It’d be like an episode of Sesame Street. So, I have, you know, I’m always kind of working on the fly. We have people who are very skilled usually, with whatever slight of hand or trickery I’m doing or sculpting or artistic endeavor. We always have somebody there who knows what they’re doing and can sort of show me. And I always try to get to set a little bit early that day and figure our, you know, okay, well, show me what your technique is like when you are sculpting or when you’re brushing, or what part of the painting would you be working on right now? Or if we’re in the finishing stages of this sculpture, what tool would you be using, and how would you be using it? Fortunately, we’ve had people who know a lot more than I do there to help me out.

How important is it for you to actually be able to do this show in New York?
I don’t think it could take place anywhere else.  No, I don’t think it could take place anywhere else. I think New York is really a central character in the show. And what I love about the show is, you see a lot of shows, you see a lot of programs that shoot here, and they look down on the city and at the sort of dirty, grimy corners of SVU or what—I don‘t want to name any specific shows, but anything, you know, they position New York as a very gritty place. And what I love about our show is that it looks up on New York and you see the tops of buildings. You see the big buildings in the background and it’s a very optimistic sort of blue skies version of New York City. And we have an amazing director of photography. It’s kind of a love letter to the city the way he shoots it. So, I don’t think it could take place anywhere else. I think so many things, whether it’s the way Neal dresses, I mean, my god, if we shot that in like, you know, somewhere in Middle America, people would be like, “Well, you look like a clown.” But for some reason, in New York when you’re walking down the street where everybody’s there to make a statement, it works. So, the pace, the rhythms, the kind of esthetics, it’s all really dependent on the city. So, I’m still pinching myself that we get to work here and get to have all the amazing indignant New Yorkers who curse us out when we shoot in front of their building. I love moments like that, actually. I truly do.

There was a line in the Season Finale that kind of stuck with me last season where Peter said to Neal, “I gave you a shot at a better life,” and Neal said, “That’s not the life I want.”Are we sort of going to be led to believe that Neal is sort of playing Peter?
Well, I don’t want to go so far as to say whether or not he’s playing him, but I think, you know, like we talked about, the trust issues on the show, nothing can ever be taken at face value. And I think, like any human being, Neal vacillates from time to time. And I’m not going to say he flip-flops, but with him I think, there’s always, there is always, the end is always in mind when anything is, in any situation the end is always in mind, the end result is always in mind. So, that’s as sort of as specific as I can be about that. But one of the things I love about the characters that drew me in from the pilot is that even though they’re contentious and they’re very different people, there are things about Peter that Neal really respects and wants. Peter has the white picket fence. He’s got the wife and the yellow lab and the house. And in his heart of hearts, I think Neal really wants that, but the question is I don’t think he ever really believes that he can have it. So, I think, you know, there’s a part of him that does want that, but whether or not he’s ever going to be able to change his ways enough to go about getting it, is sort of yet to be seen.

Did you do any research into actual art forgers to develop the character? If so, were there any forgers that you identified with?
Well, my research was more on con artistry in general, because I knew that, because it was a television series, it was going to draw on a lot of different types of—I knew I was going to be doing art forgery in one episode, pick-pocketing somebody in the next episode, a card game in the next episode, so I couldn’t just focus on art forgery. I read a book by Kevin Milnik called the Art of Deception that was really helpful, especially in sort of modern day sleight of hand and just in terms of social engineering and stuff like that. And then I read Catch Me if You Can by Frank Avondale, which—my intent was to really just sort of get into the mindset of why Neal became one and what the game was really about, in terms of being a con artist. So, once I understood that, I could apply it to any situation, whether it was art forgery or picking someone’s pocket or convincing somebody to do something illegal, or whatever it was. The more important thing for me was to get to the mindset of a con artist so that I could apply it to any given situation.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm to USA Network for the 2nd season premiere of White Collar.