The TV Chick

A couple of weeks ago, I attended USA Network’s 2nd Annual Character Approved Awards reception, where they honored innovators in various different fields of work. To learn more about the nominees (which include Green Day and Katherine Bigelow), you can visit the Character Approved website. Many of the stars of the USA Network shows attended the reception, and I was able to talk with the cast of one of my new favorite shows, White Collar. I had interviewed Tim DeKay (Peter Burke) over the phone in the past, and he was so wonderful to meet in person, and just incredibly nice and forthcoming. So forthcoming in fact, that he ALMOST revealed a huge location that would have given away a major plot point from the season finale. We talked about Peter and Neal’s relationship, the success of White Collar, and of course, what it’s like working with Matt Bomer.

What’s coming on the big season finale of White Collar?
You know, what, you’re a great interviewer, and I know you’re going to ask me all types of questions to get to the same answer. All I’m going to say is everybody’s involved. Certainly Neal and Peter, Mozzie, Elizabeth, Fowler, Kate, and even countries other than the United States.

Interesting! When you signed on, did you know White Collar was going to be so successful?
No. You never know. This was my 11th pilot, so I’m 3 for 11 with pilots. The others were all sort of…No I didn’t know! But because you have this guarded optimism as an actor because you think “Oh, I love this project, I love working with Matt, I love these characters,” don’t get too excited because you’re going to get the call and say It’s great, but it didn’t test well, or whatever. You know, there are so many people that make these decisions, to say “Yeah, let’s go with it.” But sometimes when you do these things, you feel all these, and you think all of these thoughts about the series or about the show, and then it’s confirmed by other people. You think, “Oh, I was right. It’s exactly what I thought people would think it was.” That’s a wonderful feeling.

Are we going to see more of Peter being watched by Fowler?
Yeah, the last episode, [he] becomes very stealth, I’ll use that word. The stakes are high, very high.

I know last time we spoke, you talked about shooting all over New York City. Do you have another location that you’ve filmed at recently that was one of your favorites?
We shot at — Oh no, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you. I was just going to tell you and then you were going to say — Ohhh! You don’t even know when you’re asking good questions! You don’t even know!

(laughs) I didn’t mean it that way! Do you have a location that won’t give away anything?
They’re all good locations. I can’t talk to you. I was about to tell you a location that would have given a huge part of the story away!

I wasn’t trying to get you to spoil it, I swear! (laughs)
Bad, bad!

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A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend USA Network’s 2nd Annual Character Approved Awards reception, where they honored innovators in various different fields of work. It was an amazing reception, where guests were treated to a performance by American Idiot before the cast makes its Broadway debut. The Character Approved award honorees are Katherine Bigelow (pre-Oscar win), Nora Ephron, Green Day, Narciso Rodriguez, Angela Brooks (groundbreaking architect), Kehinde Wiley (urban arts painter), Yves Behar (designer of a bluetooth headset and $100 laptop), Dan Barber (well known restauranteur), Jessica Jackley (founder kiva.org), and Alex Rigopulos & Erin Egozy (creators of Rock Band and Guitar Hero). To learn more about the nominees, you can visit the Character Approved website. It was great to see such leaders in their own field be honored by a network that is innovative in and of itself. Many of the stars of the USA Network shows attended the reception, and I was able to speak with the cast of White Collar. Matt Bomer, ever so dashing and lovely, took some time out to talk about Neal, what’s coming up on the big season finale and his favorite part of filming the show so far. (And of course, the most important thing–what was he wearing?)

What are you wearing tonight?
I’m wearing Calvin Klein.

Is there any way Bryce will be back on Chuck?
That’d be really fun. We’ll see. The opportunity is open, but timing-wise with both of our schedules it hasn’t really worked out so far. But I love that show, I love everybody on it, I wish them all the best, always.

What’s coming up on White Collar?
We have a big season finale coming up. A lot of big story lines coming to climax, a lot of really unexpected stuff going on, and we’re really setting ourselves up nicely for the second season. Check it out!

What has been your favorite part of filming the show so far?
I think really the cast, who I love, and we get along amazingly, and it’s truly a joy to come to work every day. And also getting to shoot in New York City. We get to see a side of New York City that a lot of people don’t get to see even if you live here. We’re shooting in huge, amazing townhouses and brownstones and getting to see the insides of a lot of the white collar aspects of New York City.

Do you have a favorite location from filming the show?
We got to shoot in a lot of really iconic places, like Times Square, the NASDAQ building and Columbus Circle, so for me, as somebody whose lived in New York, it was really a surreal experience for me. So I would say it would be somewhere between that and something really nice — we got to shoot in a really nice townhouse on the Upper East Side that had a million dollar chandelier that went down six stories and spread out on the floor. It’s just crazy opulence that I’ve never experienced before.

And you and Tim just recently rang the opening bell at the Stock Exchange. What was that like?
It was so much more exciting than I thought it was going to be. The countdown and leading up to it, and getting to introduce it, it’s such a huge part of New York City, just being in the financial capital of the world and getting to do it was a real honor. I can’t believe they let a criminal, though, ring the bell…but…

Has being on White Collar made you more aware of white collar crime? Have you done and investigation into some of the cases?
I think it was so out there, we were so fortunate, because we just came out there in the zeitgeist at the right time. We shot the pilot and then the whole thing with Madoff went down which was so fortuitous for us. And then, you know, it just kept rolling out and became more and more front page stories so the work sort of did itself that way. Anybody who picked up a paper was aware of a white collar scandal at the time.

Do you think Neal is going to trust Peter more in the upcoming season?
I think Neal never really trusted anybody 100 percent, but I think Peter’s probably the person he trusted the most so you know, I don’t think he’ll ever be really, completely given over to him in terms of trust but he definitely has a lot of trust in him.

Did you know the show was going to be such a huge success when you started?
No! We had no idea. To me, I just loved the script, I loved the character, it was so much fun to do that whatever came about was great. I think I’ve been in this business long enough to not really have any expectations, just show up, do the work, and do the best I could. And I knew I was on a network that really gave shows a shot, and really got behind their shows and so I’m really grateful to be working for them and I was pleasantly surprised.

Do you have anything else you are working on?
Right now, it was tough because this hiatus was so short. I did have movie offers, but I couldn’t shoot them in such a brief period of time so that was tricky. But right now, I’m doing a workshop of a new Broadway musical. They’re re-making the last Rat Pack movie actually, Robin and The Seven Hoods, and I’m playing the Sinatra role in that, so that was sort of a fun way for me to get to flex my creative muscles with a much smaller time constraint.

Is there a particular genre of film that you like?
I really respond to a lot of the really fun romantic comedy stuff. I think it’s fun, and it gives you a real sense of liberty as an actor to make fun choices, and I think that’d be a really fun place to start.

Do you have anyone in mind who you’d want to play the lead actress opposite you?
Oh my gosh, the list is endless. I really like Ginnifer Goodwin a lot. Who else do I really like? Anna Faris I love her, too. I think she’s hysterical.

And are you anything like your character? Are you anything like Neal at all?
Well, I think I’m gonna miss him because I’m definitely a bit quixotic like he is but I’m not nearly as smooth in terms of pulling off crimes, so the similarities end there.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to USA Network at 10 pm for the season finale of White Collar.

I am so excited that White Collar is returning tonight. It has become a fast new favorite of mine. The show centers around FBI Agent Peter Burke who hires former con-man Neal Caffrey to be his new partner. It is a unique show that is shot beautifully around New York City and it is very different from procedural dramas out there. I recently had the chance to participate in a Q&A with Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay (Neal and Peter respectively), about what’s coming up this season, their character development and even the fashion of the show. And be sure to tune in tonight at 10 pm on USA Network for the mid-season premiere.

It seems that both Neal and Peter seem to toe the line between right and wrong on the show, especially after seeing the cliffhanger in your fall finale.  My question is what types of real life shenanigans have you gotten yourselves into that you can draw inspiration from?

M. Bomer: Tim, do you want to go?

T. DeKay: I know we only have a little under an hour so I won’t be able to go through all of my real-life shenanigans.  That’s a good question.

M. Bomer: I snuck my brother’s car out of the driveway in the middle of the night and was trying to run over trash cans with it.  I was 16 and I got a flat tire and literally tried to go to the gas station to put air back into it.  It was nothing but shredded rubber and the rim.  I came home and by the time I got home the rubber from the tire was literally slapping on the concrete so loud the entire neighborhood – my dad was waiting for me at the door and my license was revoked for quite some time.  I wouldn’t say that I have the same kind of criminal savvy that Neal does.

T. DeKay: Is that a shenanigan?

M. Bomer: If that’s not a shenanigan I don’t know what is.

T. DeKay: That’s an excellent shenanigan; I can’t top that one.

Tim, the show obviously took a large step, something that you don’t always see in a mid-season finale.  What did you like about that last scene and what can you tell us about the ramifications as we move into the second half of the first season here?

T. DeKay: Jeff Eastin approached me with that last scene a couple weeks before he was going to put it on the script.  I said, “You’re the writer; this sounds exciting, let’s go for it.”  I love the scene and I love the continuation of the scene as well.  I think it’s some great writing and some great storytelling and very exciting and it’s a perfect cliffhanger.  That’s all I’m going to say about it.

That last scene in the aired episode I don’t know if you can tell us this or not.  Was it a coincidence or was it just a red herring or is there a reason, if you can tell us, that the actress that plays Kate looks an awful lot like with Tiffani-Amber Thiessen?

T. DeKay: This is Tim.  I’ve been asked that and I never realized that they look alike.  Now that it was brought to my attention I do see the similarity, two beautiful women.  I think it was, I don’t know, maybe the writers have something up their sleeves that I don’t know.

As far as you know it’s coincidence?

T. DeKay: I believe so, yes.

The season finale had one hell of a twist that I really don’t think many people saw coming, if anyone saw it coming.  How has this suspicion between the two characters changed the series, as it’s been the first half of the season to the last half of the season?

M. Bomer: I think it actually comes to resolution pretty quickly.  It’s not something that is as dire as it might seem; it’s something that resolves itself relatively quickly in the second half of the season.  Ultimately it’s one of those things that ends up, I think, really bringing the two characters closer.

T. DeKay: I couldn’t have said that better myself; I concur.

Over the first half of the season, Neal seems to have been developing a kind of trust in Peter and Peter has become kind of protective of Neal.  With that last twist and having seen the second half premiere, it seems like, as you said, things do resolve.  Could you speak to the development of each character in regards to the growth of trust and that sense of protectiveness?

M. Bomer: In terms of trust I think that Peter is the first person in Neal’s life that he’s really been able to have that with, but I also think it’s an interesting dynamic that’s always kind of liquid between the two of them given their history and given the fact that Neal’s not really ready to jump over to the other side of the moral spectrum immediately.  It’s something that he’s struggling with and it’s kind of his journey on the second half of the first season to figure out if I’m going to buckle down and be with the FBI or am I going to do whatever I have to do, legal or not, to find Kate.  I think the trust thing is sort of everything in the relationship, but as opposed to normal relationships where it can be a little bit more black and white, in this particular relationship, it can be more liquid.  He has more trust for Peter than he’s ever had for anybody else.

T. DeKay: As far as the protection that Peter has for Neal, I like that observation a lot.  At first, Peter’s protection of Neal was a bit self-centered.  He’s protecting himself because he made that decision to take this guy out.  But as time has gone on he’s gotten to know Neal in a different way and is now protecting him because he sees a great potential in this guy.  He’s protecting him on more than just a professional level.

Matt, what’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned so far in the world of con men?

M. Bomer: I think the most interesting thing I’ve learned is how much of it is about just like a good actor does his research on a role and does all the homework he needs to do to know a character inside and out, the amount of work that goes into a skilled con artist’s game, the amount of research, the knowledge of the mark and the amount of confidence it takes to pull it off are all really fascinating to me.  The similarities to the craft of acting are actually fascinating as well.

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White Collar is an action packed crime drama, that centers around the unique partnership between a FBI Agent and a con-man who he’s been chasing for years. When FBI Agent Peter Burke (played by Tim DeKay) catches criminal Neal Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer, “Chuck”), Neal suggests that he should assist the FBI with their investigations, and in return, he won’t go back to jail. White Collar also stars Tiffani Theissen (of “Saved By The Bell” and 90210 fame) who plays Burke’s wife, and Willie Garson (“Sex and the City”) who plays Neal’s crime buddy.

I find that some crime-solving TV shows can focus too much on the crime, and not enough on the characters. However, White Collar is very much the opposite. The acting is truly phenomenal. And in the midst of crime and serious cases, the show has it’s incredibly funny moments as well. I think the premise is unique, and it works very well. In the beginning of the episode, Burke is frustrated by his FBI team of Harvard graduates who can’t seem to solve any cases. Along comes Caffrey who knows everything about crime, because he’s already committed them. The partnership is interesting not only because they are sort of yin to each other’s yang, but also because deep down, they each have an extraordinary amount of respect for one another. (Even if Burke’s “respect” for Caffrey is more of a masked, hateful respect).

In any case, I don’t want to spoil too much more. But I will say that I have incredibly high hopes for this show, because the pilot is just fantastic. Also, Matt Bomer is pretty nice to look at as well.

Don’t miss the series premiere of White Collar TONIGHT at 10 pm on USA Network.