White Collar – Matt Bomer And Tim DeKay Set Visit Interview – Part II

Be sure to check out Part I here.

Panel: I—actually to play off that, Matt seems—sorry, Neal seems almost as invested in Peter’s relationship with his wife as Peter is. And [indiscernible] and we saw the aspect in the pilot of Neal helping Pete, you know, discover his romantic side and, you know, how to learn more about her, how to—is that—does that continue? Is there, like, a Cyrano de Bergerac thing going on here?

Matt: Sometimes, yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s a steady theme in every episode, but it definitely happens and my—certainly my fascination with what it is to have this picket fence life, is alive.

Tim: Yeah, it does continue. You know, look Peter, if he were [indiscernible] question, would say yes, I am the luckiest man in the world. I know I married up and—but there are things that—and Elizabeth is great with the way Peter is, but there are things that Neal gives to Peter every so often. Yeah, it would be kind of nice if I did this or if I did that.

Panel: I have a question for Tim. On Carnivale, you played, like, a real salt of the earth, like kind of working class guy and in this show, you play that same type of character also and Matt gave you a compliment earlier, he said that that’s kind of your real life personality. So—

Tim: A little bit.

Panel: Are you drawn to those characters? Because I mean, they’re kind of like—the characters get to have, I guess, life’s fun.

Tim: I think [indiscernible] was a good time. I have a good time playing those guys. If you mentioned Joansie, I had a really good time playing a guy who has a limp, who has a drinking problem, who chews tobacco, who is sleeping with the—not only his friend’s wife, but his friend’s wife’s daughter. So—

[laughter]

Tim: So, I mean, so those are fun, those are rich characters.

Panel: Do we need to record [indiscernible]?

Tim: I think I’ve—you know, it’s—the path that you take and what roles you take, I’m sure there are theses, thesises, I don’t know, look it up—

Matt: Thesi.

Tim: Thesi? Written about—what starts to inform you as to how you live your life or certainly how you think other people see you, you know. Wow, I keep playing the bad guy who is sinister, does that start to inform you and tell you, well, that’s what will get me work. So, I’ll keep doing that, you know. But, I was—I think it—I think Joansie and Peter are quite different. But, they are the salt of the earth, yes, they both—there is a groundedness to these guys. There you go, that’s maybe where I’m [indiscernible], there is a groundedness to these guys.

Panel: They’re hard workers.

Tim: Yeah, there is—and what’s interesting, I feel, is when you see a grounded person be tripped up. That’s interesting and I think that’s what a lot of Neal and Peter have. Peter is very grounded, so it’s interesting to see Neal trip him up.

Panel: Can you—Matt told us that he had already been cast when you were brought in, so can you tell us a little bit about how you got involved the project, your audition process?

Tim: I had just come off of Tell me You Love Me, from HBO and they—you know, some scripts were being sent and I read this one. I was also—I was reading and was not offered, so I’ve got to be clear on this, but there was some interest for the show The Middle—or Middle?

Panel: [Indiscernible].

Tim: The Middle, yeah, with Patty Heaton and it was right at the same time and then I got this and I was shooting New Adventures of Old Christine when I auditioned for this. And, I went in, there was a chemistry read and there were about, I don’t know, a dozen of us in the waiting room. And, you know, I won’t say any names, but you’d recognize all these guys and half of them are names. And you think—yeah, and you think oh—

[laughter]

You know, but then there’s this odd thing where they look at you and you can tell, they’re going, ah, like, you know what I mean? There’s a—I might not have a name that somebody else does, but they look at you and they go, oh, I know that guy, oh he’s be good as Peter. Or, you know, you go there, you tend to go there, as an actor when you’re in the waiting room. You try not to.

So, I went in and I read with Matt and right away, oh, oh, oh, this is mine! This is mine to lose, this is mine to lose. And, it just kept going and it just kept going. I—and so I read with Matt and then I was cast and then we read with about—then I had to read with, I don’t know, twenty or thirty women to play my wife.

Panel: Darn.

[laughter]

Panel: Poor guy.

Tim: It’s work.

Panel: Did you have a favorite moment in the pilot? Like, something that really jumped out at you, as far as, you know, I really want to do this show? [Indiscernible]?

Tim: There were a couple of moments. All of the moments with Matt, listen, the show—to me, the show is—it’s not me, it’s not Matt, it’s that energy in between Matt and me. So there were—yeah, there were just a lot of fun moments where we were talking and what have you. There was that, specifically I couldn’t think of one. But, I do have to say, the other fun moment for me, was when I bust through the door and I—and, you know, all the FBI agents are coming in, it’s this long dolly track. And, it’s just one of those moments where you played it out a thousand times in your backyard.

[laughter]

You know, as a kid, FBI, you know, and it’s—but it was for real, you had fifteen extras in FBI gear and you were busting into a warehouse in Brooklyn. I thought, wow, this is it, this is it, this is very cool.

Panel: It’s better than being a real FBI agent, because nobody’s going to shoot at you.

Tim: Much, much better, it’s all pretend, it’s all pretend.

Panel: Matt told us that he had, you know, really thought about his character’s back story in terms of what made him become this con artist that, you know, he never had anything and everything. Have they explored or have you thought about why did Peter become an FBI agent? What drew him to that?

Tim: Yeah, I think Peter has a comb—I talked to Jeff Easton about this and he has a very specific back story about it, which I agreed with a hundred percent. But, there’s another part of Peter. I think Peter that came from a very working class background, but was incredibly smart. I say that Matt—that Peter and Neal both scored exceedingly high on their SATs. I think Neal shared it with quite a few people. Peter was embarrassed to tell people, because where he lived, it just wasn’t cool. Not that it was wrong, but it just—and when he got into a really good school and got letters from these schools, he probably told my dad, “Yeah, I don’t know if these schools, they want me to go there.” Really, you know, because in a way, it’s a comment on, I’m smarter than you dad. You know what I mean?

So, there is that and because Peter has that sensitivity, I think he grew up watching people and watching behavior. So, combined with his intelligence and just cerebrally, he’s also intuitive to people. Like, when he asks the question, I think—I hope you see it, I ask a question, and it really doesn’t matter what the answer is, it’s that second right after you ask it. So, you stay with somebody and then it doesn’t matter what they say, it’s their initial reaction and I think Peter kind of grew up that way.

Plus he was really good at math and I went to school with a lot of guys who were accounting majors and then the FBI said, “Hey, do you want to help us solve white collar crimes?” But, not the glamorous, sexy ones that we solve, the ones where, you know, somebody’s embezzled some money. So—and a lot of those guys were ex-jocks too and I think Peter’s an ex-jock.

Panel: And [indiscernible] he played FBI guy in his [indiscernible].

Tim: Yes, he did.

Panel: Yeah, the scene where you come down the stairs and you see Matt’s character sitting on the couch with your wife and it’s kind of like, hey you just ripped off your ankle bracelet and be, like, stop dogging my wife.

Tim: Right.

Panel: He seems to be, clearly from everyone who’s sort of interacting with him, his character has that effect on women, but it seems like people are drawing a parallel that, as an actor, he’s kind of like, suave with the ladies. So, how much of that, just being his co-star, have you observed? Like, the cast is kind of like—

Tim: Oh, you mean that Matt is suave with the ladies.

Panel: Yeah, like, Caffrey in the show is, like, is slick with the ladies, but it’s also, like, yeah, well, because they—yeah.

Tim: Well, first of all, Matt physically is an unattractive person.

[laughter]

Tim: Let’s be honest.

Panel: It’s so unfortunate.

Tim: Let’s just be honest. Yeah, he just is that way, you know, he’s that way and he doesn’t even know it.

Panel: But, how amusing is that as a cast to, like, observe? Because a lot of times people just aren’t—are, like, oblivious to that and don’t even see it.

Tim: Well, he is not suave and debonair like Neal, he’s not. Because his work ethic is unmatched. I’ve yet—I work pretty hard and I—there are very few people that I have seen who work harder than me and I don’t think Matt works harder, but he works as hard as me. So, he’s an actor first, he’s an actor who happens to be incredibly beautiful. It’s true though, he’s an actor who—and who is equally funny. He’s as funny as he is good looking. But he’s an actor first.

Panel: So, a few minutes ago you were talking about character traits within Peter. I was wondering, which one of those character traits you were best able to personally relate to?

Tim: Loves to solve a good case. I love that. I used to watch Columbo with my dad and used to try to be ahead of it. You know, it’s always fun to be ahead of—I love any espionage movie, any spy movie. Like, oh, no, why did they—why did they cut to that guy? Oh, he shouldn’t have told her that. He said that because he really means this and—I love that. And, I think—and there’s a joy that Peter has in solving the crimes. You know, there’s a little—that’s why he works late, because he loves it.

Panel: Do you have any favorite detectives in movie or TV history?

Tim: Well, I do like Sherlock Holmes and I do like Columbo. I liked the movie Catch Me If You Can. I like To Catch A Thief, any one of them. I don’t have one particular detective, no, but any one of those, just the flavor of those movies.

Panel: Did you get to talk to real life FBI agents?

Tim: I did, I did.

Panel: Cool, how was that?

Tim: Cool, really cool, because they are—they give you some inside scoop and—the guy that I talked to, he said he would get Christmas cards from people that were in prison, that he had put in prison. And, there were times where he’d have to go to somebody’s house and arrest them and he’d knock on the door and the wife would answer and he knew the wife, because he got to know them and he said he remembers a moment where he comes in, knocks on the door, the wife answers. She says, “Oh, no.” He said, “Yeah.” He said, “You know, let’s—I’ll give you guys a few minutes, but I’ll be outside.” It’s that fine line between, you know, where you cross it all the time between the good guy and the bad guy.

Panel: Did they indicate that this consulting thing, [indiscernible] was something that they do, was it common or—

Tim: Oh, yeah, it’s common. It’s very common, yeah. Now it’s not—I don’t think it’s as glamorous, as sexy, you know, the heist of a, you know, Thomas Crown Affair, there’s another one. You know what I mean? That kind of world, I love it, it’s so fun. I don’t—but yeah, it happens, where you’ve got an inside—you’ve got an informant, you’ve got a guy inside and sometimes the guy will say now, my name might come up in this one. So, make sure—you know, then it becomes a deal.

Panel: Do you think that Peter will have—

Tim: Go ahead.

Panel: Do you think that Peter will eventually truly trust Neal and not have any distractions, like finding Kate or anything else?

Tim: I don’t know, I don’t know if—that’s up to the writers. I don’t know if Peter will every truly trust Neal, I don’t know. We’ll have to see, but it’s interesting you mention Kate, because I think that is the key to that. I don’t know, I don’t know. Right now, right now, I think Peter thinks, I’ll never trust that guy completely, I’ll never trust him, never trust him. And, I also think, as an actor, I need to feel that way because that keeps the tension.

Panel: There seems to be some type of—you talk about Peter as a—in relation to his education and also there seems to be, like some type of deep seated, self hate in relation to academia, and throughout the pilot, there was a lot of references to, particularly Harvard, to [indiscernible] Harvard. Where does that come from?

Tim: That one I guess comes from the writer, obviously. But, I think it comes from that whole sense of—to keep going back and forth, I think it’s quite possible that Peter actually went to Harvard. And, so he teases his fellow classmates. Any of you Harvard grads, you remember that one? No? What’s this, you know, because I think probably, let’s say that he did go to Harvard, I can’t decide, I can’t decide [indiscernible]. That there were probably some people at that school that were given a free ride in and didn’t work as hard as he did and doesn’t have—didn’t have that blue collar background.

Panel: Yeah, it [raises] entitlement, like, the same thing with him kind of [indiscernible].

Tim: That’s right, it comes to entitlement, yeah. See I think Peter loves to learn, he loves to learn. I think just that association of entitlement is what—and he connects that to—at least in the pilot, to Harvard. Does that make sense?

Panel: Are there any idiosyncrasies from your character that have crept into your real life? I mean, there’s, you know, the way you hold yourself or certain phrases or something, some lines, has there been anything that’s kind of crept into your own life?

Tim: I don’t think so, no.

Panel: Not more of an FBI agent than you were before?

Tim: No, no, but my kids, my kids will ask me to, you know, walk the way, like, an FBI agent. Take out the garbage or something.

[laughter]

Which isn’t any different than I do. No, but it is amazing, once you put on that—the shoulder holster, you just—I mean, every—you’re just a little bit bigger. Just—it’s fun. So, no.

Panel: You seem to have a pretty good relationship or you have really good chemistry with Tiffani. What’s it like kind of working with her and how do you—was that chemistry pretty much inherent from, like, the first time you met her or–?

Tim: It was, the second we met, it was there. The casting director we both knew very well. And, so I think the cast—and the casting director said nice things about ourselves to the other person and it was just there. It was there and she’s a pro. I mean, she is a pro. She knows her work and does it well and she’s married, I’m married, there’s a nice—there’s a comfort there. There’s a good—there’s a comfort there. I mean, in my past show, it was intense, the relationship stuff that I had to do in Tell Me You Love Me. So, it’s—I really enjoy doing this, it’s not nearly as intense as that.

Panel: How much leeway do you have with scripts or with input that you and maybe Matt have on your characters?

Tim: We’ve got quite a bit of input. Jeff certainly—there’s an open door there with the other writers, but by the time it comes to us, they’ve spent a lot of time on it. So, it’s up to us to make those words work and if they really can’t, then you make a call and say hmm, this isn’t working. But, there’s always—they always give us leeway to improv in between and to snap back and forth with each other. Because that we have, so they kind of—

Panel: Along those lines, it seems like there’s a lot of really good one liners that we kind of noticed in the pilot. Like, just that were very unexpected, but really kind of lift and alleviate and bring that humor to it. Any particular moments that maybe you guys brought in from an improv?

Tim: Did we bring in—I think calling him Deano was mine, I think it was. I can’t think of any right now. There are a few—

Panel: Or any written ones maybe that were your favorite when you read it and thought, oh, this is great, I can’t wait to—

Tim: Oh, one of my favorite lines was, “This is the FBI, we don’t ask, we don’t care.”

[laughter]

Panel: [Indiscernible] that scene because it was so funny to see Matt, like, come to the realize—or not Matt, but Neal, come to the realization that, oh my God, there’s a woman who I maybe couldn’t seduce, like that’s crazy to me.

Tim: Exactly.

Panel: Like, that was a really funny part, but what actually wanted to ask about was just, when you guys—you and Matt were talking about the relationship that you have and how violence isn’t a factor in it, as it would be for most, you know FBI agents and criminals that they catch. And, it’s fairly interesting, that’s how it makes the show so interesting to me, that it is, on some level, a police procedural type show, like so many other ones on television. But, it’s very different in that, I mean, it’s not blood [indiscernible] like a lot of the other ones are. I mean, there aren’t brains splattering all over the place.

Tim: There aren’t.

Panel: So, you know, [indiscernible] you’re filming right now. So, how—

Tim: Sixth, seventh, counting the pilot.

Panel: Okay, yeah, so, you know, you’re about halfway through, how does violence come into play or not come into play as the season goes on?

Tim: You’ll never see—just like in the pilot, you’ll see the violence—you’ll see them—if there is a murder, you will see it after the fact. You will not have seen it happen and you’ll never flashback to have seen it happen. And if there is blood, somebody on the show will not like it, will not like to see the blood. And we—and you don’t—in the crime scene investigation, there’s an abbreviation for that, what is that, crime scene inv—CSI.

[laughter]

There is—you never see any of that, it’s—we’re—to us, the—to solve the crime, is not in that right there, in that it’s up here, it’s up here and it’s the ego that is driven by other people. And, the other thing is, I have to say, is that you’ll see—like in the pilot, you’ll see a gorgeous part of New York. You will not see somebody killed on a stoop and then, you know, two guys in raincoats coming up and talking about it and then going and investigating. You’ll see—I mean, we were just shooting in Columbus Circle, just now and we were just—and I—like, we’ve been all over the place. It’s just ah, I’m just constantly with my camera, oh, look at this! Look, look here!

Panel: You’re originally from New York, right?

Tim: Ithaca, New York, upstate New York, like five hours. There you go, five—four or five hours from here.

Panel: Is it good to be back in the area?

Tim: It’s fantastic. I—look I love California, I love LA, I love my family and friends that I have out there, but I miss the seasons that the east offers. Because no matter how your life is going, no matter what is going on, who knows what the wind and leaves changing will bring you? I mean, I always feel that way, it’s like—something else is going to happen and you don’t kind of get that in LA. It’s just nice.

Panel: You’ve done a lot of stage work, would you like to return to that at some point?

Tim: I’d love to, I’d love to.

Panel: Stay in New York, there’s Broadway.

Tim: I know it, I know, I would love to, yeah.

Panel: Limited [indiscernible] between shooting.

Tim: I know, but it’s just great, because on stage, you’re in control of the story.

Panel: Well, Matt said, you know, it’s television, it’s a writer’s medium and, you know, film is a director’s medium and live theatre is an actor’s medium.

Tim: That’s right.

Panel: Once you’re out there, it’s yours.

Tim: It is, it is yours, yeah.

Panel: Let’s say a few seasons from now, Jess approaches you and says, do you want to be a producer? Would you be open to that?

Tim: Completely, completely, I would love to direct.

Panel: Or directing.

Tim: Yep, completely, mm-hmm. I think that it makes some sense because the characters drive this show. Yeah, I would love to.

Panel: Do you feel a lot of pressure at all for how well [indiscernible] the work has been doing? I mean, everything you’ve launched in the past couple of years has been—I mean, got cable standard especially, you know. Do you feel a pressure? Are you now worried right now about, like, you’re not going to get good ratings when they come out and, you know–?

Tim: Oh, you can’t, I can’t, oh, I can’t go there, you know. No, my job is to act, that’s my—to tell the story. No, I can’t go there. Because by then it’s too late anyway, it’s done, what am I going to do? Smile more? [Indiscernible] do you know what I mean? But, yes, so that’s a valid question and so I won’t—just try to stay away from it.

Panel: I asked Matt this question before, I said what is something about you that we wouldn’t know if we, like, IMDb or googled you, that’s something—what’s something, like, telling about your personality that [indiscernible]?

Tim: What did Matt say?

[laughter]

Panel: He tried to, like, side step and then I asked him what was on his DVR and he said he likes Dateline and he did a Chris Hansen impersonation.

Tim: Nice.

Panel: [Indiscernible] Keith Hansen?

Panel: No, no, he did—

Panel: No, what’s—Keith Morrison.

Panel: Yes.

Panel: The guy with the really [indiscernible] voice.

Panel: Just something about—not Peter, just about you.

Tim: Yeah, about me. I’m a pretty active dad, I’ll be honest with you. I coach my son’s little league team—

Panel: How old are your kids?

Tim: They’re ten and seven and we went to the California World Series last year, pretty good team.

Panel: [Indiscernible] are they still in LA?

Tim: They’re in LA. So—they were here with me all through August and then they had to fly back. You know, for a second season, we’ll take another look at this, and my daughter is a big—she loves ballet and she’s now taking the flute. That just came about yesterday. She’s playing the—taking piano lessons as well and for all of my daughter’s recitals, I learn all of her steps, so she and I can go and do that.

Panel: Yeah, we don’t have questions now, we’re all gobsmacked.

Panel: Do their friends realize that you’re famous? Like, are you a celebrity when you go to their school?

Tim: No, no, you guys—here’s what you got to realize, they go to school where, like, Andy Garcia is dropping off their kids and—

Panel: So everybody’s famous.

Tim: Well, not everybody, but it’s just—everybody works at the plant, when you—in LA and everybody who goes to school works at the plant in one way or another. You know, there’s—the kids are still excited. “Coach Tim! Coach Tim! We saw—I saw you last night on the–!” You know, yeah, they’re excited for that. You know, and then you ask, “Well, did you watch the whole episode?” “No, no.”

[laughter]

So, they’re excited to see you but—

Panel: Well, but do you really want a seven-year-old watching Tell Me You Love Me anyway?

Tim: No, you don’t, no you don’t want anybody—no you don’t, no.

Panel: Well, Peter and Elizabeth seem really happy, but is that going to change at all? Are they going to have—

Tim: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s important that they stay grounded and happy. I mean, there may be positive changes to their relationship—

Panel: Is there gong to be kids?

Tim: I don’t know and I don’t—I said that, like I don’t know—

[laughter]

No, I don’t know, I don’t know.

Panel: Right, right, I heard.

[laughter]

Tim: I don’t know, but they’ll remain grounded and good. There will be conflict of course with—you’ll never question anything. Although this is a fun episode, Peter has to go undercover and kind of flirt with somebody, yeah, and he does—he’s not good at it.

[laughter]

Panel: Now we [indiscernible] Neal and his effect on women, in the scene where Peter comes down and sees, you know, Neal talking to Elizabeth, I really didn’t get the sense that it was, like, oh my God, he’s flirting with my wife. That it’s, like, wait, no you’re my work life, what is my work life doing in my living room?

Tim: Yes, and what do—

Panel: And, I don’t—and I never got the feeling that there was going to be any sort of triangle there, at all.

Tim: No, no, no.

Panel: Which is good, I thought.

Panel: Yeah, that’s good.

Tim: No, that’d be too easy as well. No, no triangle. No, what are you doing in my house? You’re a criminal that has an anklet device there, what are you doing here? It’s not—now that’s the other thing about it, see I—Peter’s not worried at all. He knows that there’s a good thing going there, for a number of reasons.

Panel: Smooth.

[laughter]

Tim: No, but you know what I mean? Yeah, I’m glad you saw that and not—

Panel: She’s just, you know, [indiscernible] calling him cute and just like, you know, like, oh, it’s cool, my husband’s, you know, ex criminal partner is sitting on my couch chatting with me. She’s so easy going about his job, you know, it’s like—

Panel: Well, I guess they’ve been married for ten years, you kind of have to [indiscernible].

Panel: It’s like, you know, usually you see a wife and she’s ticked off because he’s late, you know, and there’s fights being started. But it’s so refreshing to see a wife supporting her husband and, like, understanding, this is your [indiscernible].

Tim: Well, and we also wanted to make sure Tiffani is not the, “When are you coming home?” That’s so easy to play, to do that role as well.

Panel: Right, and it also led to a really funny scene, with that very apparently well trained dog, [indiscernible].

Tim: That was amazing, wasn’t it? And we just caught that, like, it—

Panel: Seriously?

Tim: Oh, yeah, and it wasn’t in the script or anything, it was just, like—caught—did we get that—could we get the dog in, in the broccoli? Yes.

Panel: [Indiscernible] that was one that [indiscernible].

Tim: That was an adlib, “Chew your food,” that’s an adlib.

Panel: Right, that was—and that was pretty early on, that was in—and that’s when I—when the show kind of changed for me a little bit, because you really saw it, oh, this is going to be kind of funny too. That was—that’s a great scene, I [indiscernible] a lot.

Panel: A couple more questions guys?

Panel: Are you more of a romantic than Peter is?

Tim: Am I more?

Panel: Knowing that your wife will probably read this.

Tim: Well, I’m much more of a romantic than Peter, that’s a big character—that’s character work for me. Oh, I’m a hopeless romantic. I love romantic comedies, I love—probably one of my favorite movies is, It’s a Wonderful Life. Oh, yeah, oh, I’m a sap. Oh, yeah.

Panel: You talk about the education and intellect of Peter and I think that Neal also is pretty smart.

Tim: Oh very.

Panel: Who do you think is smarter?

Tim: This is how I answer this. I think we both—I was going to say that we both scored the exact same number on our SAT scores, but Neal did better—now maybe—now it’s different, but back when I took SATs, there was verbal and math. I think Neal scored better on the verbal and Peter scored better on the math. But together, they had the exact same.

Panel: Guys, I think we’re almost out of time on this.

Tim: You guys, thanks so much for blogging, thank you so much.

[applause]

That’s it!

RU?