White Collar Q&A: Catching Up With Marsha Thomason

You may know Marsha Thomason from her other shows Las Vegas or Lost but she is currently starring as FBI Agent Diana Barrigan on White Collar. Agent Diana Barrigan is one tough cookie and seems to be able to do it all—from going undercover as a high class call girl, while looking fabulous I might add, to arresting perps or being an integral part of the FBI team.

In a recent Q&A conference call, I caught up with the dynamic Marsha Thomason. Here are eight facts on Marsha/Diana that are certainly worth knowing.

1. Marsha reads a lot on set.

She’s currently reading The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. “I just actually started, I literally just like put it in my bag and I’ve read a page. It was recommended actually by a hairstylist on the show. I just finished reading American Music, which actually the DP [Director of Photography] on our show, Russell Fine, gave to me because his friend, Jane Mendelsohn, is the author. But that’s what I just finished reading. It was really wonderful, a beautiful love story.”

2. Favorite Episode From Season 2:

“Need To Know” was my favorite episode (the second episode in season 2 when she went undercover as the call girl with Neal). Marsha also enjoyed last night’s episode, “In The Red” and said it was “another fun one for me, another one where I go undercover. My favorite ones [are] where we go undercover because I get to play another character on top of the character I’m already playing.”

3. Any similarities to her character, Diana?

“We look alike, which is kind of weird. Am I similar? Yes, she’s a ball buster. Which I guess is something that could be said about me. She really has a sense of doing the right thing and I have that. I couldn’t imagine having a job where I had to wear a suit every day. But other than that, I think there are many similarities between us.”

4. Pros & Cons of NYC:

“Well, the pro is that it’s New York City, hello. The con is that it’s so bloody humid right now and I’m in a suit all the time. They come and powder me, so I look like I’m smooth and cool.  Underneath I’m literally dripping with sweat. It’s so hot all the time. It’s kind of chaotic, but I like that. For me right now, it really is just the heat.”

5. Marsha on Diana’s motivation to get out of bed each day:

“She just really loves solving crimes. She likes putting bad guys away. Of course, we all have a sense of right and wrong, but she really has a strong sense of that. She doesn’t really deviate from it. So I think for her, her passion for being a FBI agent and going to do that job everyday really is just getting the bad guys and helping innocent people.”

6. Any challenges for Marsha on set?

“Well, there are a couple. One of them is some of the language that we have to use on the show. In the pilot I had on my very first day, it was this little speech and there was this big scene where we bust into this warehouse. I had to say something about, “exigent circumstance means we can do the blah, blah, blah.” I had no idea what exigent circumstance was or how to say it in an American accent. I managed to get one take out and then something happened and the second take, I go, “exigent circumstance, blah, blah.”  And Tim [DeKay] looks at me and I look at him like I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m saying. Just say your line.”

“Some of the action I find a little bit tricky. I enjoy it very much, but it can get very technical. Something as simple as the handcuffs that we use, obviously they’re not real handcuffs because we’re dealing with actors and not perps. And so when you hook them on, the mechanism, it can just go around and around and around. In other words, it makes them really difficult to get on. They bounce back, and I just look completely inept.”

7. What she would like to see happen with Diana:

“I’d really like to see the relationship with Neal explored a little more. I work with Tim [DeKay] a heck of a lot on the show. We have a lot of scenes together. But Neal and Diana, it’s kind of a slow build, so I’m really looking forward to seeing that storyline develop.”

Marsha would also like to Diana interact with her girlfriend, Christy. “I ask them [the writers], “Hey, when are we going to meet Christy?” And they’re like, it’s coming, it’s coming. But I’m hoping we meet Christy soon because I’ve shot quite a bit of footage in Diana’s house, but Christy is never there.”

8. Will Neal give up on trying to make himself attractive to Diana?

“No. Absolutely not. His ego is too big. You’ve seen the way women swoon when he walks into a room, because no, it’s sport for him. He’s the guy that fakes art and steals and does all of that stuff for sport. There’s no way he’s ever going to give up.”

Marsha Thomason is extremely amiable, down-to-earth and fun. On a side note, I enjoyed listening to her native English accent during the call, which she speaks without on the show. Hey writers, can Diana go undercover and use her English accent during an upcoming episode?

Make sure you tune in to see White Collar’s Marsha Thomason in action as Agent Diana Barrigan on Tuesdays at 9PM on USA Network.

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Images courtesy of Eric Odgen and the USA Network.