The AfterElton Interview: Matt Bomer on TV Bromances and "Magic Mike" Thongs & Boundaries
Posted by Jim Halterman, Entertainment Reporter January 16, 2012
If the world doesn’t already know the face and name Matt Bomer from the highly rated USA series White Collar where he plays perfectly coiffed con artist Neal Caffrey, they surely will know him when they see him – a lot of him – in the June film release, Magic Mike or, as it’s come to be known, ‘The Stripper Movie.’
Jaw-dropping photos have been slowly leaking out into the press of a shirtless Bomer alongside his Magic Mike co-stars Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Joe Manganiello, Adam Rodriguez and Matthew McConaughey but what’s it like to sit down with Bomer in person? The charismatic, genuine and, yes, better-looking-in-person Bomer gave AfterElton some one-on-one time at the recent Television Critics Association (TCA) Winter Press Tour to talk the new episodes of White Collar this week as well as the plusses and minuses, so to speak, of playing a stripper alongside some of the hottest men in the business.
AfterElton.com: One thing that I love about White Collar is you really see how invested Neal is personally in this world with Peter (Tim DeKay) and the CIA and how that constantly challenges him considering who he used to be and who he is now. Do you think he’s just totally moving away from his con artist past? Can he?
Matt Bomer: What makes [series creator] Jeff Eastin a great writer is that the first two seasons Neal’s conflict was always external. ‘Where is Kate? How can I find her? How can I save her?’ And then the second season was all about, ‘How do I avenge her death and get to the bottom of what created all this?’ And this season it’s been an internal conflict. “Do I stay or do I go?” Is it nature or is it nurture? Is it fight or is it flight? And so that’s been really fun to get to play and obviously Jeff Eastin does a great job of just keeping congruity in his themes and just making every episode stay on theme [and] by the end of these six episodes, we definitely get a big cliffhanger in terms of that. He makes a decision. But I think that once Elizabeth (Peter’s wife, played by Tiffani Thiessen) became involved and he realized how personal it was getting and how the fact that he had these personal relationships could cost him in terms of this job and he might even be bringing danger into these people’s live, it made him reconsider things.
AE: And now that he has a chance of losing that ankle bracelet and truly be free I’m guessing that’s a big part of what’s to come.
MB: Yeah, it sort of comes in the vehicle of Beau Bridges, who has very specific plans for Neal’s future and that obviously affects both Neal and Peter in different ways and it sort of influences what kind of decisions he’s going to make.
Bomer with co-star Tim DeKay in a scene from White Collar
MB: Yeah. She comes back in the last two or three and they actually found a really great way to incorporate her into the story line and get her on board for like the big finale. She’s great. She’s gorgeous and a great actress and just jumped right into our world, which is not an easy one to just jump into because it’s fast-paced and we shoot really fast and she was just a blast to get to work with.
AE: Speaking of great chemistry, I think the show works, obviously because it is basically about Peter and Neal. It’s that relationship. It’s a love affair between these two guys. Do you see it that way?
MB: I see it as a really profound relationship between two people who have vastly different backgrounds, completely different skill sets, a completely different outlook on the world, but when they come together those skill sets compliment each other in such a way that they are incredibly effective. And they’re both smart enough people to understand that and respect that in the other. So there’s a mutual admiration, as well. At times it’s father-son, at times it’s big brother-younger brother, at times it’s therapist and patient, and either one of us can play either of those roles for the other. It’s very sort of Butch and Sundance at the heart of it, you know?
AE: In the second of these new episodes (airing January 24) Peter get in on the con when you guys are [undercover] at the Upper West Side school. It showed him a little more of what Neal’s world is like as a con, right?
MB: That to me is quintessential White Collar. When we’re going undercover and Peter catches Neal’s hand in the cookie jar…and instead of putting him in jail says, “Well just one cookie, not five.” That to me is sort of a classic episode of White Collar and that was a really fun one to shoot.
Hot for teacher? In an upcoming White Collar episode, Neal goes undercover as a prep school professor.
Bomer with college pal Joe Manganiello
MB: Well, college came first. I’ve known Joe for fifteen years. We went to college together. And then White Collar came next. [The producers] said, “Do you think your friend Joe will do an episode?” And I said, “I hope so.” And he said yes and he did a great job. It’s kind of a Rear Window-themed episode and he was fantastic and that was so fun. And then Magic Mike came after that.
AE: Let’s talk about Magic Mike, which everybody’s really excited about. I mean, I think everybody. [both laugh] What is your character in the movie?
MB: I play Ken, who’s sort of, I guess, a modern day southern hippie who’s really trying to break out of the regional commercial market and get his big break as an actor and break into the national market and balance his sort of hedonistic lifestyle and wanting to kind of get out of it at the same time. I think ultimately what he realizes is he’s probably not going to be going too much farther than that particular club.
AE: And it’s present day or...?
MB: It’s present day.
AE: Now it’s one thing to do a shirtless scene on White Collar but I’m guessing it’s another thing to do a stripping movie.
MB: Yeah.
Bomer (right) in a scene from Magic Mike with Adam Rodriguez (l) and Channing Tatum (center).
AE: So how did you guys prepare? I’m guessing there was training….
MB: It was a lot, actually. I mean, one of my compasses as an actor is when I have the opportunity for a role, does it scare the s**t out of me? And certainly with In Time (last year’s film with Justin Timberlake) it did to have to play a 105-year-old who stopped aging at 25. And then when I heard about this, I thought, “Wow.” My first impulse was sheer terror. And especially when I heard about the other guys involved, I was like, “Well, maybe they need somebody with a swimmer’s build.” [laughs] Life is a spice rack, after all.
But, yeah, it was extensive training and I got to study with this group called The Hollywood Men, who are male dancers in LA who cater to a female crowd. I watched their acts and got to hang out backstage with them, which was very informative to me because that’s a lot of the world that my character lives in the movie.
Then, we had choreography lessons with this great, great choreographer, Alison Faulk. She was fantastic. She choreographs Britney Spears and Madonna, and so she knew how to take people who didn’t have a lot of dance experience and make them look like they actually have a sense of rhythm. And then there was the training and this fake tanning and the man-scaping and all that stuff which was, you know, a lot by the time the cameras were rolling.
But we had a blast, man. Channing is one of the coolest, most gracious, generous, sweet people I’ve ever worked with, and this movie could have been a really awkward experience and because of him and the fact that he was so cool to everybody and so supportive from the beginning, it was really, really fun. Between him and Steven [Soderbergh, the film’s director]… Steven’s a fantastic director and we had this dinner right before we started shooting and he said, ‘Jump off the cliff. I will catch you.’
And after I heard that I was like, ‘All right. We’re doing this.’ And we did and we just had such a great time and I’ll tell you, if you ever want to build an ensemble between a cast of male actors, make them all hang out with each other in thongs and it’s like instant Band of Brothers. You will have each other’s back in any circumstance. Those guys will be friends to the end, I’m sure. We all kind of jumped off a cliff together. We’re like, ‘Well, I hope the water feels good.’
AE: But the movie does have dramatic element to it, right? It’s not just a fun and stripping.
MB: Yeah. I mean, look. This movie is really a coming of age story. The really central relationship of it is between Channing’s character, Mike, and Alex Pettyfer’s character, The Kid. It’s about somebody who’s trying to get out of the world they’re in or definitely sees a ceiling on the world they’re living in, and another new, young soul who just is just kind of fascinated and drawn like a moth to the flame to that hedonistic lifestyle.
Bomer cryptically said gay audiences will find boundaries blurred in Magic Mike.
AE: For our gay readers, is there a gay character in the film or a gay element to the movie?
MB: I don’t know how much I can say. I think there will be several scenes that will… I think the gay fans will be very, very happy with several of the scenes that occur in the film. But, yeah, there is one scene that I… well I don’t want to say anything because then it’s going to ruin it for everybody and it comes out in June and it’s going to give away a big thing, but…
AE: So there’s one scene to look forward to…
MB: There is one scene in particular where definitely those boundaries are blurred. Yeah.
AE: Good to hear. So what else is going on for you?
MB: I’m done shooting this movie [and] I really only have two months before I go back to White Collar and right now I’m trying to squeeze a movie in while I’m shooting White Collar in New York and then tag the rest of it in when I finish, [but] that hasn’t been announced yet. I think it should be announced in the next couple weeks, but it’s a really exciting movie. Hopefully if it all comes together it’s a really, really important and big movie for a lot of people. I hope that happens.
AE: What about more singing? I saw you on the Kennedy Center Honors sing with Kelli O’Hara and you’ve sung on the show.
MB: I so want to be able to do a Broadway show, and I’ve had opportunities to do them, but it’s hard enough commuting away from my family six months out of the year and then to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be gone actually a full year so that I can be on Broadway every night.’ It just wouldn’t be fair to my family, so…
AE: You could take them with you…
MB: Well, I think you have to make that choice as an artist. You know, it’s like, are you going to be someone who takes your family with you wherever you go? Or are you going to give them a real sense of roots and you’re going to be the one who has to be a little bit of a satellite from time to time? I think if an opportunity comes up where it’s a shorter run…and I had talked to Kristin Chenoweth about doing a job possibly with her and if it were a three month situation and I didn’t have a film lined up and we could make that happen I would definitely be into it.
AE: You could do a guest spot on Smash.
MB: I haven’t seen Smash. I’ve heard wonderful things. The producers are very dear friends of mine, so I would love to come do a guest spot on Smash.
AE: It seems from where I sit you’ve handled the success of the show and your overall success really well. How do you feel?
MB: To be honest with you, I don’t really feel any different as a person. I don’t live my life any differently. I mean, there might be people who want to come take a picture when I’m having dinner, which is fine by me. I don’t know any artist who doesn’t want people to respond to their work on some level, but I’m just grateful to be a working actor and to get to play roles that I like and get to work with great directors in the hiatus. And I count myself really blessed to get to score a really great role that I can actually grow with over the course of six seasons, not just spouting expositional dialogue or, you know, doing the formula that works every episode.
White Collar airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on the USA Network. Magic Mike is scheduled for a June 29, 2012 opening.
MB: I don’t know how much I can say. I think there will be several scenes that will… I think the gay fans will be very, very happy with several of the scenes that occur in the film. But, yeah, there is one scene that I… well I don’t want to say anything because then it’s going to ruin it for everybody and it comes out in June and it’s going to give away a big thing, but…
AE: So there’s one scene to look forward to…
MB: There is one scene in particular where definitely those boundaries are blurred. Yeah.
AE: Good to hear. So what else is going on for you?
MB: I’m done shooting this movie [and] I really only have two months before I go back to White Collar and right now I’m trying to squeeze a movie in while I’m shooting White Collar in New York and then tag the rest of it in when I finish, [but] that hasn’t been announced yet. I think it should be announced in the next couple weeks, but it’s a really exciting movie. Hopefully if it all comes together it’s a really, really important and big movie for a lot of people. I hope that happens.
AE: What about more singing? I saw you on the Kennedy Center Honors sing with Kelli O’Hara and you’ve sung on the show.
MB: I so want to be able to do a Broadway show, and I’ve had opportunities to do them, but it’s hard enough commuting away from my family six months out of the year and then to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be gone actually a full year so that I can be on Broadway every night.’ It just wouldn’t be fair to my family, so…
How can you not love a guy who takes his Mom
as his date to the Kennedy Center Honors? (2010)
as his date to the Kennedy Center Honors? (2010)
AE: You could take them with you…
MB: Well, I think you have to make that choice as an artist. You know, it’s like, are you going to be someone who takes your family with you wherever you go? Or are you going to give them a real sense of roots and you’re going to be the one who has to be a little bit of a satellite from time to time? I think if an opportunity comes up where it’s a shorter run…and I had talked to Kristin Chenoweth about doing a job possibly with her and if it were a three month situation and I didn’t have a film lined up and we could make that happen I would definitely be into it.
AE: You could do a guest spot on Smash.
MB: I haven’t seen Smash. I’ve heard wonderful things. The producers are very dear friends of mine, so I would love to come do a guest spot on Smash.
AE: It seems from where I sit you’ve handled the success of the show and your overall success really well. How do you feel?
MB: To be honest with you, I don’t really feel any different as a person. I don’t live my life any differently. I mean, there might be people who want to come take a picture when I’m having dinner, which is fine by me. I don’t know any artist who doesn’t want people to respond to their work on some level, but I’m just grateful to be a working actor and to get to play roles that I like and get to work with great directors in the hiatus. And I count myself really blessed to get to score a really great role that I can actually grow with over the course of six seasons, not just spouting expositional dialogue or, you know, doing the formula that works every episode.
White Collar airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on the USA Network. Magic Mike is scheduled for a June 29, 2012 opening.
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