White Collar: Q&A Conference Call with Matt Bomer & Tim DeKay
January 9, 2011 by Allison Toner
On maintaining their chemistry:
The duo first joked that they attend couples therapy once a week. But Matt went on to add, “I think Tim is inherently a generous person and very generous of spirit and he brings a real sense of play to the work. I try to do the same. I know he lifts me up on my off days.” Tim responded, “Oh, and you lift me up on my off days. No, listen, we have a blast. We have fun together, but in the end, we respect each other.”
Matt singing in season 2.5…
Matt will sing with Diahann Carroll in the episode “Countermeasures,” which will air on February 8th. Matt said they sing “One For My Baby (and One More For the Road).”
Tim explained, “it was a great moment. It’s one of those moments on the set where— Matt has sung before around the set, just being goofy—but when he and Diahann sang that song everybody on set just got quiet because they had to rehearse it. The whole crew just went into a spontaneous applause. It was just one of those moments like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s neat.’ “
Matt further added, “Diahann is amazing. Diahann is obviously a legend and incredible and it was a real honor to get to sing with her.”
On the show’s mystery/mythology…
“Usually there are two questions people ask me about the show it’s, ‘What’s Mozzie’s fate?’ and ‘What’s going on with the music box?’ It’s exciting. I feel like I keep giving the same answer of ‘Oh, you won’t be disappointed, let me tell you—’ It’s very difficult. You want to answer it for these people, at least I do, so it’s difficult to evade that question all the time. I’ll be glad when it airs,” said Tim.
Matt chimed in, “Yes, I feel like we’re always sort of dancing around the secrets involved with the mythology of the show and that’s fun. That’s a fun aspect of it. Jeff (Eastin) is always outdoing himself as a writer and every time we get the mid-season finale or the finale script, we always look at each other and go, ‘Really?’ He’s almost like the writing equivalent of the guy at the party who takes the joke one step too far, but then that night you think about the joke and you realize it was actually really profound and kind of amazing. He’s incredible that way. He’s always surprising us. I don’t like to know too far ahead of time what’s going to happen because I like the element of surprise as well. Then I also don’t have to dance around the mystery quite as long.”
Anything they would like to see in the future?
“I would love to dip into Neal’s past a little bit more and maybe see some of his family members come into play and see what kind of conflicts that brings up between he and Peter. I wouldn’t mind seeing him be a little bit of a man-whore, to use a little bit of the James Bond tactics to maybe do whatever it takes to solve the case,” said Matt.
On this topic, Tim added, “I feel as far as character, I think Jeff and the writers have met everything that I had hoped for. I too, would like to delve into some more of Peter’s background. I think the more Peter and Neal know about each other, it actually strengthens and lengthens the relationship because these two just love to dig. Peter would love to meet a family member of Neal’s. He’d love to sit down and get to know his mom or dad or brother or sister.”
On working more with the ensemble cast…
Tim: “I certainly do and yet I like that in the end that it’s about Peter and Neal; that’s the base of it. I love it when Elizabeth gets involved with a case and I love that Diana is back and working on the case. She adds such an intelligence to it.”
Matt: “Yes and a sexiness.”
Tim: “I love that Jones is involved more and that Peter and Mozzie have found a way to dance together.”
Matt: “Yes. I think it makes the day really fun and it has added a lot to the show. It opens up a lot more relationships and we get to work with Hilarie, who brings so much to the table, and Gloria whose relationship is so different than that of Neal and Peter’s. It breaks things up. It’s more of a window into the character when you see how they behave with a lot of different people. It’s kind of fun to get to explore those relationship dynamics. At the end of the day, for me it always is fun just to kind of come back to home base and do a nice Peter and Neal walk and talk down the streets of New York.”
Preference for crossovers with USA shows…
Tim first responded, “Royal Pains because it’d just be nice to go out to the Hamptons for a few days. Then again, it would be nice to go down to Miami and shoot some things in Miami.”
What to expect from season 2.5…
Tim at first stated, “you can expect commercials every 15 to 18 minutes.” He then added, “just more fun.” Matt said, “I think I can safely say that a lot of really big storylines that we’ve been exploring over the past couple of seasons really get brought to a head and closure on a lot of things. We get a glimpse into a lot of the characters’ pasts and see why they are who they are and how they got that way. We get to see, as usual, sort of a liquid trust dynamic between Peter and Neal. Then obviously also we get some resolution to Mozzie’s incident relatively quickly.”
Were they surprised by anything in season 2.5?
Tim explained that there was not anything that didn’t match up for him. While Matt said, “I think for me the way I met Mozzie and the way we sort of came to become friends was pleasantly surprising. I thought for some reason that maybe we’d gone back a little bit farther than that, but it was fun.”
Season 2.5 guest stars:
Paul Blackthorne, Hilarie Burton, Andrew McCarthy, Gloria Votsis, Alexandra Daddario, Diahann Carroll, Billy Dee Williams, Joe Sikora, Ross McCall, Adam Goldberg, James Rebhorn and Richard Schiff.
They both loved the season finale…*spoiler*
Matt revealed that, “All I can say is that in the last episode of the season I never—I mean, if you locked me in a padded room for five years and made me continually guess where this season was going to end I never would have come up with this. It was astounding and amazing and surprising and incredibly fun.”
Matt and Tim were extremely impressed with the last scene of the finale. Tim added, “Yes, when I read the last episode I did everything to not call my wife, my dad, just to say—”You won’t believe this. This is incredible.” So I didn’t, but yes. Yet, Jeff Eastin and the writers were able to shut the lid on the music box—no pun intended—and within one second turn around and open up this other one that just was astounding.”
Matt’s thoughts on Hilarie Burton plus Neal’s relationship with Sara Ellis…
Matt Bomer: “She (Hilarie Burton) brings so much to the role. She’s the real deal. She’s gorgeous, and she’s in it, and she has brought this amazingly intelligent, challenging, super Type-A character to life that Neal finds really intriguing and ultimately on some level I think wants to tame. It’s a really fun dynamic to get to play with her and she’s such a great actress. It’s really kind of moment to moment with her, which is always fun and keeps me on my toes. We have a lot of fun stuff that we get to do with each other and their relationship will grow and there will be a lot of tension there, maybe a little sexual frustration and then maybe some sexual frustration release; I don’t know. I’m just saying maybe.”
Ask each other a question…
Matt asked Tim, “What’s your favorite thing about Peter Burke and what’s something about Peter that no-one would guess?” Tim’s response: “My favorite thing about Peter Burke is that he has to nearly contain his giddiness when he’s on a case. He just loves it. That keeps him going. I’ve said it before, there is almost a little disappointment when the case is solved.”
Tim jokingly asked, “If Neal were a flower, which one?” They agreed that Neal would be a beautiful flower which “would lure you in and then it would be poisonous but only a very specific poison.” The duo then added the poison wouldn’t be lethal but would make you trip out for a couple of days, like a peyote flower.
If they were to sing a duet together…
Matt and Tim joked that they perform at weddings and bar mitzvahs plus that they couldn’t sing on the call because their booking agent would be unhappy. Tim began to recite lyrics (“Wherever he goes, whatever he does, we’ll always go through it together”) from “Together, Wherever We Go” by Bette Midler. They then agreed they would sing that song together.
This team of Tim and Matt or Peter and Neal doesn’t disappoint whether onscreen or off. They are so spontaneous, witty and charming. Make sure you tune in to see more of this premier partnership when White Collar returns on Tuesday, January 18th at 10 PM on USA Network. If you’re not watching, you’re missing out.
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