The TV Chick

White Collar returns with a bang tomorrow night on USA Network. It quickly became one of my favorite dramas last season with its quick wit, interesting cases and um, have you seen Matt Bomer?! One of the lucky ones who gets to work very closely along side Bomer is the extremely talented (and lovely) Tim DeKay. He plays Peter Burke, the only FBI Agent who was ever successful in catching former con-artist Neal Caffrey (Bomer). While Peter is sort of the yin to Neal’s yang, he clearly enjoys his new found parternship, trust and friendship they have formed. Combine all this with drama and mystery, and it keeps me tuning in and on the edge of my seat week after week. I recently had the chance to visit the set of White Collar, where we toured the FBI and the homes of all of the characters. Tim DeKay chatted with us about Peter’s relationship with Neal, the gorgeous locations they have filmed at around New York City and what he hopes is coming up for his character. 

Your banter with Neal is awesome.  How did you guys establish that relationship in the first place?

I don’t know we just, it goes back to—I feel like some of you have heard this already.  It goes back to when he had been already cast in the role.  And then I, there was a chemistry read it was called, where, and I think there were, you know, they’d seen a lot of people.  And then I was shooting New Adventures of Old Christine at the time.  And they called me in to do a chemistry read with him, and I saw quite a few other people there that were very recognizable, and it concerned me. But I went in and we just started reading and there was an immediate trust between the two of us, that it would be—I liken this to sports.  In that, if he has the ball he throws it to me, I have the ball I throw it back.  And the best time is when the ball is between us and neither one of us really have it so it’s going back and forth like that.

How much of that is improv or is scripted?

I couldn’t give you a percentage, but I’ll attempt it, maybe 80 percent is scripted.  Most of the improv you’ll see is at the end of a scene.  Where the writer has written an ending to it, the scene closes and then he and I will kind of riff after that and they’ll keep it rolling, keep the cameras rolling until ad nauseum.

When did you think that the relationship between Neal and Peter changed between the convict and the person who caught him, to an actual friendship?

For me, it was when he was, it was an episode called Vital Signs.  And there was a time where, in order to get Neal out of that clinic—he was drugged at the time—in order to get him out, Peter had to one, go in there and get him and there was a moment where Peter had to make the decision to steal the surveillance tapes from that clinic.  And that was a moment where Peter, you could say, crossed the line and did something illegally, and it was simply for him, it was for Neal and no other reason other that.

And I think, you know, you talked about it a little bit but trust has been sort of an overarching theme through season one.  And it seems like it’s going to continue through season two, so how does that continue to play out as the season continues?

It’s great because you have, you saw the first episode so I guess we can talk about that. Jeff has set up this great duality, where I’m looking into something concerning the accident, Neal is looking into something concerning the accident, and neither one of us can tell each other what we’re doing.  And yet we’re closer because of what we said to each other prior to the accident.  So, it’s similar to other relationships that we have, that the closer you get in some ways, because you get closer if you don’t disclose something in that close relationship, then the trust lessens in a way, and it becomes compartmentalized.  I still think all that’s great, but I think perhaps the greater value of Neal and Peter is just the two of them—bickering is not quite the right word.  But, I don’t know what they do, when they’re in a stakeout.  I think that’s what’s, I enjoy that the most.

All the mystery surrounding the accident, is that something that’s going to play all season long or for a chunk of the season?

For parts of the season, in and out.  It won’t take, it won’t drive the season certainly, but it will, yeah, it will be part of the season.  Because again he’s, Jeff set up this thing where—now I can’t trust you with that.  Before it was I can’t trust because I know you want to get to Kate.  Now I can’t quite trust you because I know you’re going to dig into who had the plane blow up.

What about Peter’s relationship with the new female FBI agent, we kind of saw something at [that end]?

Diana.

Does he trust her?

Completely. Completely, yeah.  And I think you have to have that, story wise.  It’s the same thing with Peter, no matter what—it’s FBI, no matter what, in the end—and he said it a number of times to Neal, “I will get you, in the end I’ll win.”  You have to have that otherwise the world is just simply chaotic and there’s no foundation there.  But, yeah, he loves her.  Peter loves Diana and trusts her completely.  And it’s great that there’s no sexual tension whatsoever.  So you’ll see in other episodes where she can, she dresses up to go undercover for these things and Peter’s just, “Wow, hey you look great.  Alright now what we’re going to need you to do is going to go up the stairs and around—“  That’s fun.

How far into the season are you, do you know where all of this is going?

We’re shooting episode five right now.  So we have a rough idea of where it’s going but we don’t know.

How do you like being portrayed in one of the healthiest couples we’ve ever seen on TV?

It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful.  Because most of the relationships I’ve had on television have not been healthy.  So it’s real—or working on getting to be healthy.  It’s wonderful, it’s just great and it’s not healthy in a Leave it to Beaver way either.  It’s healthy in a very mature—what’s the word I want there?  They’re savvy, they’re both, they’ve got it going on, they’re a good couple to emulate.

Are we going to sense Tiffani Amber Thiessen’s absence at all, like is the wife going to go to a spa vacation or something?

There are some catering events in San Francisco that need to be taken care of, yeah.  Yeah you will. It’s fun, I mean everybody knows.  So it’s just fun to see, I think, how we handle it.  So there are a lot of telephone calls, yes.  I don’t think we Skype, we telephone call and we –

Did you want it written into the show at all, the pregnancy?  Is there any chance that that could ever happen?

There was a little bit of talk, I didn’t want it, and I don’t—most of the writers and people didn’t want it and Jeff didn’t want it.  I just don’t think that works in this world right now.  Peter is a workaholic and if he’s out on a case and it’s late, he has a wife who understands that you’re a workaholic.  If they have a kid and he’s out on a case and it’s late and his life is in jeopardy, he becomes a bad dad.  So, and we didn’t want that and it’s not, a child right now is not in the White Collar world.

Maybe season three?

[laughter]

Season 13.

[laughter]

In the episode we watched we saw Mozzie and your new relationship.  Is that going to continue as the season goes on as well?

Yeah, that’s a dance we’re going to have to be aware of.  Because, you know, in the first season Mozzie was in the house a couple times and helped us out.  And I thanked him, and I help him out every so often.  But there is a distance that we keep, and always will keep.  He will always call me suit, I’ll always call him Mozzie or [Havisham] and that will, and I will help him out.  And I don’t think he’s a bad guy, it’s just he’s not in Peter’s world and Peter’s not in his.  And I think it’s good to keep that distance so that Neal can always go to Mozzie and say, “Help me on this.”  And I can say in cases, “And don’t go to any friends on this one.”

The scene where Peter and Neal are breaking into the bank to catch the architect.  There was a gleeful look on your character’s face like he was really kind of interested in this alternative lifestyle of crime. I was wondering if that might be kind of an interesting little character where he becomes more like Neal and Neal becomes more like him, kind of like a swapping.
There’s been talk of, like, kind of swapping characters for an episode, you know, just to say, “Peter you’ve got to go undercover for this one.”  Look, Peter loves the chase, he loves it.  So to break in—that’s a perfect world for Peter when they broke into the bank.  Because he got to go to that side of the law, in the right way, he got to do it.  And so it was perfect, it was fun, it was cops and robbers. But he was kind of playing the robber—yeah he loved it, he loved it.

Do you feel that the show’s formula has been tweaked at all for season two?  Were there any lessons learned from season one, is there a focus on, are we doing a little bit more of one thing a little bit less of anything?

That’s a very good question, I don’t think so.  I’m sure Jeff Eastin could answer that better than I can.  No, you know –

Feels like the exact same show to you?

For the most part it does, it does.  I think, you know, that’s a dance for executives.  I keep saying dance.  But that’s something for executives to think about.  Because you want it, you know, I can’t dance, but you want, you have to dance with who took you to the prom.

Are you working on a musical episode now is that why?

No, [I don’t know], something [laughs].  But you’ve got to be aware of that, you’ve got to make sure it’s—don’t change anything. If it’s not broke don’t fix it.  And yet, grow to a degree.

How involved are you in the writing process?

Not at all, not at all.  I can pitch certain scenes and episode that I think would be fun.  And, but that’s all it is, “Oh you know what’d be cool?  Is if Peter and Neal got locked in an elevator for half the episode or a whole episode.”  You know, or—that’s it.

Do you have any ambitions to do eventually write episodes or is it too early in the series?

I can’t, I can’t. I have tried.  I have tried on many occasion to write an episode, to write movies and I just—once the script is there then I can say, “Ah,” I can be a dramaturge and say, “No this would be better here because the event would allow that [indiscernible] happened later,” and all this.  That I can do, I can analyze a script, but I can’t begin one.

I think it’d be great if—I heard you guys do a rendition of Carry on My Wayward Son.  You were beautiful, it was a beautiful rendition.

Really?

[Has that[ inspired you guys at all to maybe sing on an episode?

Yes, Neal, yes Neal and Peter are going to break a huge international karaoke ring.

[laughter]

[laughs] No, that would be fun though, something where–[you used the word] Neal says, “Peter we’ve got to go up, we’ve got to sing now or else…” you know.

People still talk about you and Matt singing from the web-chat that we did [in California].
Right maybe that’s where it was.

That’s where I got it from.

Yeah, he can sing. I just do the melody and he does all the harmony.

[laughter] You guys always look like you’re having a lot of fun.

We are, yeah. Yeah we are, we do have fun.

Are you going to yuk it up especially for us?

We will, we will, we have canes and top hats.

And dancing?

And dancing, there you go.  No we do have fun. I think that’s part of the one of the differences in this show than in another show, is there is a levity to it all.  And I think that we have to, you’ll see we’ll be very serious about it.  I had this great director once tell me that, he says, “If, in theatre, if the atmosphere is very serious while doing a comedy it will be a funny play.  And if the atmosphere is very funny while doing a serious play it will be a good play.”  And I think there’s something about the seriousness of comedy where, “All right, is it funnier if I first grab it and then tell you the line or leave it there?”  Because it’s so—comedy can almost be mathematical at times.  But this is a different kind of comedy, it’s not a sitcom comedy, it’s much—I think it’s a smarter comedy. It’s quicker.  And we don’t want anybody to guffaw, we just want someone to get a kick out of it, you know what I mean?  So because of that we can keep it, keep the levity of the environment on the set.

It’s actually kind of odd, because every time I interview drama people they’re always surprisingly funny, and comedians are always not.

Comedians are messes, they’re just yeah, I mean think about it.  Think about going up on stage and just, you know, dropping your pants.  And that’s the relationship you have with the audience, like, I’m going to do—and we all know the agenda.  The agenda is to be funny. A comedian has nothing else other than that.  And we as an audience know that that’s our responsibility too, we’re responsible.  So there’s this—everybody feels a little responsible when a comedian comes on stage. That’s a horror!  And to want to do that, I think that’s crazy. I think that’s crazy.

What are you hoping is coming ahead for Peter this season?

Just more fun chases, and to—and I love that Peter is involved with Music Box.  He’s got this—last season Peter was affected personally and his conception of the FBI has changed to a degree.  They, you know, they bugged his home, they got into his personal world, and that rocked him. Because he’s not used to, you know, he’s always been a bureau guy, he’s always, you know, what am I saying?  He’s, there’s a phrase when you stick with a team or you carry the flag or something.

It’s a team player?

Yeah, there’s another one.  Well you guys know what I mean.  So. But that’s what he always has been. And once Fowler and company changed that and told him that, “No there are bad people in the bureau, and extremely bad people in the bureau.”  That just angered him greatly, greatly.

Do you think it’s because he sees things in black and white a lot of the time?

I think so, I think he believes that—there’s a pursuit of goodness there for him and that the bureau does that as well.  So that there’s a case now where, the episode we’re working on, where somebody has stolen something and the woman doesn’t have any priors and it’s a circumstantial theft.  And Peter’s whole—toe the line, he toes the line.  And Peter’s whole philosophy behind it is, “I know, I know she didn’t, I know this is not her, what she normally does.” But regardless, she stole it.  And who knows where that money was going to go to, it’s not her money to take.  And so I think that’s—not so much black and white, but there was a reason this law was set up and it’s from a sense of good that I think—you know I had a director once who would always tell me, “Look for the love, go for the love.”  And I think if you go black and white, then it can become very rigid and there’s no love or heart in there.  But if you always look for goodness—and I think that’s what Peter looks for.

You have five time Emmy winner John Larroquette coming up as a guest star.

Already did, did a scene with him, did a scene with him and have another one with him tomorrow.  It’s just awesome just, it’s fantastic.  And he’s funny and he’s smart and just so privileged to have him.  We’ve had some incredible guest stars we’ve had Aiden Quinn on the show, Hilary Burton is wonderful.  We’re very lucky.

Is there someone that you personally would love to see on the show?

Oh, I’ve got a bunch of friends that I’d love to see on the show.

 [laughter]

I do, a bunch of friends that I went to school with that I think would be great.  Tim Matheson was on the show. We used him for the bad guy in this one episode, well it was the first one right?  And I always thought, oh shoot, I thought that was kind of a waste.  Because I would love to have him be, I don’t know, like Peter’s older brother or something like that, where he could have an [arch].

 And I know you talked a lot about how many amazing locations you’ve shot.  One of my favorites from the one that we watched was where you and Peter, Neal shot the golf ball off into the Hudson River.  What was that like? Can you say where you shot and that and what that was like there?

It was incredible.  I think it was somewhere on 23rd I believe, I don’t think it was a home, it was–

They have an actual driving range right down in that area.

They do, yeah. With nets, yes.  And if you fell short it wouldn’t hit the west side highway.

[laughter]

No, but there’s some of these places though, they’re not even, they just rent them out for parties or whatever, at crazy prices, crazy.  You know, and again, every time you think there can’t be another wealthy six story townhouse here in Manhattan where somebody lives.  And there is, there is, there just is.

They stay wealthy by renting them out to TV shows.

Well that is part of it.  No, it’s true though, that is I think, “Oh this is why this person has the money they do, is because this is the way they think.”

So do you have a wealthy townhouse in New York City [laughs]?

No [laughs] I have a very humble studio that I’m renting from Jonathon Tucker who played—I can’t, last year he was in, he was the guy who owned all those comic books in an episode.

So what has it been like for you shooting in New York in one of the few shows that’s out here?
It’s great.  I have—my family is back in LA, so I have to fly back on the weekends a lot.  But it’s super, I just love it, I love shooting in New York.  Because I was also, before working in New York, I was doing a lot of theatre and financially it wasn’t easy.  You know my wife and I were just married and were, you know, we’d cater every so often and it was a struggle.  So to be here now shooting this show that’s pretty popular and, you know, we get these great locations it’s a nice feeling.

Do you have a favorite White Collar crime from the first season that was in an episode?

No, not really, there were some for different reasons.  I enjoyed The Portrait, which was like the second episode.  I enjoyed that fun with the French girls in the hotel room.  There was an element of Some Like it Hot to that that I liked. I liked that.  I liked them all, I liked them all.

Do you think you have anything in common with your character?

Yeah, I do.  I think like Peter, I try to do what’s right and I think he’s an ex-jock, as I am.  He’s got a good marriage, so do I.  I’m certainly much more creative than him. But Peter’s got a sense of humor though.  Peter, he, like his sense of humor is back door which I think is like mine a bit too.  He’s happy watching sports like me, and I think he’s an avid reader, I think he reads a ton when he can.

Do you think he’ll ever stop reminding Neal that he’s a convict constantly [laughs]?

Oh no, not at all.  No. No. No. And he won’t, he’ll never stop reminding Neal that he’s caught him twice. No, he loves doing that yeah.

Do you think that’s why Neal respects Peter so much, enough to do all this is partly because this is the only person who’s beaten him?

I think so. I think they both respect each other because they both love the hunt, the pursuit, they both love it.  I also think that, and I’m sure that Matt could speak more to this, that Neal—there’s a big part of Neal that wishes he was like Peter, that wishes he had that.  And he can see it in Peter, and wishes he had that relationship and the picket fence.  And conversely, Peter wishes that he could have that freewheeling attitude sometimes that Neal has.  They both have each other, something that they like and yet at the same time envy.  Jeff Eastin has written, or set-up these two great complex characters, that their complexity works only against—best against each other.  Standing alone the complexity, is it’s more difficult to reveal it.  But once they are together that complexity comes out.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 9 pm to USA Network for the second season premiere of White Collar!

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