Comic-Con 2010 White Collar Press Room: Stealing the Con

After a lively White Collar panel featuring a video with a Team Edward t-shirt-wearing Willie Garson leading the entire cast in a plan to steal the trailer of Tron: Legacy at Comic-Con, a profane version of the Folger’s Coffee theme song, and numerous Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonations, the cast and producers of the show met with reporters backstage to unwind.  They have filmed the first half of the season and provided tantalizing hints about what is in store for viewers.  Keep reading to learn what they think about the current season, their wardrobes and characters, and New York City.

Sharif Atkins (FBI Agent Clinton Jones)

• Atkins (ER) teases that Agent Jones will get out of the surveillance van and participate in some of Neal’s capers this season.
• He says that being on the show has been all fun and there isn’t anything really difficult about being on it.
• They have a director who helps them with background acting and appearing busy while at the FBI office.
• Atkins believes that Agent Jones is “out of the loop” as far as the mysterious music box is concerned, but that he himself has touched it.  He likes the fact that “some elements of the FBI are up to no good,” as it makes things interesting and keeps viewers on their toes.

Marsha Thomason (Agent Diana Barrigan)

• Thomason (Lost) is consistently surprised and flattered by White Collar fans and how they have connected with the show.
• While Thomason may be attracted to Neal Caffrey, she loves playing a character who isn’t charmed by his debonair style and tends to roll her eyes at his antics while other ladies “swoon over him left and right.”  Since it is not something he is familiar with, it frustrates him and she loves playing Diana that way even when it is not called for in the script.
• She was reluctant to share details about future plotlines, fearing for her job security, but did say that her character shoots someone else this season…she thinks.  She was not entirely sure since all the episodes get jumbled up in her mind.
• She is not interested in becoming a director at the moment, but has been producing some film projects, none of which have gotten off the ground yet.
• She spends a lot of her downtime watching television.  Some of her favorites include Glee (which she would love to be on), True Blood, Mad Men, Modern Family, and The United States of Tara.
• Despite being an Englishwoman, she feels comfortable using an American accent on the show and tries hard to get it right.  She does, however, occasionally feel judged because she is pretending to be an American while surrounded by Americans, even if she does feel like this country is her home now.

Tim DeKay (FBI Agent Peter Burke)

• Playing Agent Burke on White Collar has been quite different from Tim DeKay’s (Carnivàle) usual roles.  He has found being a leading character challenging because Peter “carries much of the story.”  He provides a lot of exposition, including “who the bad guys are, what the situation is, what kind of information is on file.”
• Peter envies Neal to a degree and the ease with which he carries himself, but says that Neal’s world is just not his world.
• He loves sharing scenes with Tiffani Thiessen, his on-screen wife.  The handsome actor is used to playing the strong, good-looking guy, but on White Collar, he is the regular guy with the hot wife.  It’s like Beauty and the Beast, he jokes.
• To him, “Peter’s a rock and others buzz around him, but no matter what, Peter’s there to make the world right in the White Collar world.”  He adds, “What’s fun about it is that he’s also funny.  It’s funny when he gets tripped up.”

Jeff King (Co-Executive Producer)

• Showrunner King (The Black Donnellys) is thrilled to be working on White Collar.  He has not done a second season of a show in a long time and says that the episodes they have filmed lately are his favorites.
• They have just finished shooting the ninth episode, which is the mid-season finale.
• He credits Jeff Eastin with coming up with the details in every scene and says that Eastin is widely read.  Their challenge is to translate his ideas onto the screen in a fun and interesting way.
• It is the second series of his to shoot in New York and he loves filming there.  He cannot imagine doing the show in any other city, as even just being on the streets and on location add so much to the show.
• King believes that every good story is very simple, from Gilligan’s Island to Stargate.  Journeys begin in one place and move towards a different place.  Their goal is to “establish a world and to honor that world.”

Matt Bomer (Neal Caffrey)

• Mastering all of Neal’s skills has been somewhat of a challenge for Bomer (Chuck).  Eastin gives him a heads up when a skill Neal possesses is “outside [Bomer’s] wheelhouse,” but will sometimes throw him for a loop, like when he sent an email asking Bomer if he could ride a horse.  Additionally, Bomer spends his downtime “going to galleries and familiarizing [himself] with that world.”
• While Bomer maintains that he’s a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, he says that Neal’s classic wardrobe is essential to the character and helps him get into the proper frame of mind.  Dressing a certain way gets Neal access to where he wants to go and helps him “maneuver in the upper echelons of society.”  People even treat Bomer differently in real life when he runs into restaurants while on breaks from filming.
• When comparing Bryce (Chuck) and Neal, Bomer says that they are “completely different.  Bryce was a rogue CIA operative who was really cut and dry.  He did not ever let anybody know anything about him.  He did not expose any vulnerability.  He was very efficient.  He knew he loved Sarah Walker, but even that was a workbased thing.  The CIA are all encouraged to be incestuous as it is.  Neal’s suave and hyper-intelligent, but he’s very roundabout in getting what he wants.  Whereas Bryce had a tendency to go directly at a problem, Neal is a little bit more serpentine in getting what he wants.  He also has a real Achilles heel, a sloppy romantic life that’s a real flaw that sort of rounds him out a bit more in a way that we never got to see of Bryce.”
• It has been said many times on this site alone, but is still worth repeating — Bomer really is that good looking in real life, even (especially?) when slightly scruffy.

Willie Garson (Mozzie)

• Garson (Sex and the City) bases Mozzie on the scam artist chess players in Central Park.
• They have a professional criminal consultant who made him realize that criminals like Mozzie and Neal like doing what they do and getting away with it, “like moguls.”  It’s not about the money.
• This season we will be seeing how Neal and Mozzie developed their close bond via flashback.  Garson hopes it will involve an amazing Jewfro hair piece.  Viewers will also get a peek at where Mozzie lives and meet his love interest.
• Garson has been in the industry for a long time and says he has deliberately chosen a career path that will provide longevity and likes to be on projects that target different audiences.  He loves that television is fast-paced, but is concerned about being very famous for just one show.
• He loves to guess where people know him from.  Sex and the City is the most frequent answer, although he sometimes gets shows like Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, and Taken.
• Garson has found himself taking care of both Neal and Bomer in and out of character and says that Bomer would do the same for him.  There is a “complete bond of trust” between their characters and “Mozzie will always take care of Neal.”

Video: White Collar’s Matt Bomer talks about becoming Neal Caffrey, wardrobe choices, and Bryce Larkin from Chuck.

White Collar airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on USA.

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Photographs and video courtesy of Ayang and Poptimal.com.