Tuned In: CMU grad enjoys twists and turns in White collar role

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Tuned In: CMU grad enjoys twists and turns in White collar role
Sunday, January 31, 2010
By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
White Collar, 10 p.m. Tuesday, USA, starring Matt Bomer.

After a handful of episodes aired this fall, USA's "White Collar" left viewers to cliffhang on a twist before the show's holiday hiatus: Did FBI agent Peter Burke [Tim DeKay] betray his charge, con artist-turned-FBI consultant Neal Caffrey [Matt Bomer]?

When the series returned earlier this month in its new time slot -- 10 p.m. Tuesday -- fans were probably relieved to learn Burke remains on Caffrey's side. But now it appears that Caffrey's on-the-run love interest, Kate, may be using him. But Caffrey doesn't believe it.

"His Achilles heel is his romantic life," said Bomer, a 2000 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's musical theater program. "It starts in the pilot episode where shortly before his sentence is over, he breaks out of jail to meet up with Kate. That's one of his flaws, one of the things that makes him human."

In a phone conversation earlier this month, Bomer said he was not surprised at the fan outrage in December.

"This show really lives and breathes around the relationship between Peter and Neal and their camaraderie. Amidst all their differences, there's lightness and fun, but it's also the way they work together."

Last summer at the TV critics press tour, Bomer compared his character to a 4-year-old child.

"He doesn't have a lot of impulse control," Bomer said. "He's always testing boundaries."

But Bomer said Caffrey respects Burke -- after all Burke twice put him behind bars.

"Like any 4-year-old, you've got to hold their hand when they're in the parking lot; there has to be structure and they have to be reined in or there's going to be complete chaos."

When he was in Pittsburgh at CMU, Bomer lived at different times in Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and Oakland, and he played a bag boy in a Giant Eagle TV commercial. He maintains contact with CMU professor of voice/speech Don Wadsworth, who served as his dialect coach when Bomer had to speak Italian and French in an early "White Collar" episode.

Although Bomer previously had a recurring role on NBC's "Chuck" [as the spy Bryce Larkin] and starred in ABC's 2007 series "Traveler," "White Collar" represents a break-out role for the actor. USA put a lot of marketing money behind the show's premiere, including huge billboard photos of Bomer that went up in the country's largest TV markets.

"It's obviously completely surreal," he said of seeing himself two stories high. "But the great thing about it is it feels so good to have a network so strongly behind us. Whatever it takes, I'm happy with. I would much rather that than, 'Oh, yeah, another one of our shows.' There was a certain point where I wanted to lock myself in my studio apartment for a week or two, but I'm just thankful they're behind us."

The support has now extended the show to a second season. Production resumes in March or April in New York.

When the first-season finale airs March 9, viewers will again be left with questions. Bomer called it "a huge cliffhanger" that leaves question marks surrounding the relationship between Caffrey and Burke and Caffrey and Kate.

"I can't say too much about it, but things are brought to fruition in a really dramatic way," he said. "I don't think it will rub people the wrong way, but it will grab people."

Contact TV editor Rob Owen at rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1112. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv.

source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10031/1029364-67.stm?cmpid=news.xml

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//an oldie but...//

PRESS TOUR JOURNAL: CMU's Matt Bomer goes 'White Collar'
PASADENA, Calif. -- USA, an NBC-Universal network, has been far more successful in recent years than broadcaster NBC. And in a weird reverse, USA's shows often have more broad appeal than programs on NBC. The strategy works for USA with hits like "Burn Notice" and "Royal Pains" and even the retiring series "Monk."

Coming to the lineup Oct. 23: "White Collar," which stars 2000 Carnegie Mellon University alum Matt Bomer [pictured, left] as a con artist who teams with an FBI agent [Tim DeKay, "Carnivale"] to track down elusive criminals.

"One of the things that humanizes the character is that he comes from a quixotic place," Bomer said. "He's kind of like a 4 year old. He doesn't have a lot of impulse control. He's always testing boundaries."

Executive producer Jeff Eastin acknowledged that odd-couple action-comedies are not new.

"When I looked at a lot of stuff, it was how in the world do you pull it off," Eastin said. "They always end up in the same place. At the end, now they're buddies. That works great for a movie, but for TV these are guys you want to hang out with. The idea was, let's spend a little time putting them at odds but these two guys really respect one another."

Posted Aug 05 2009, 05:29 PM by Rob Owen

source: http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/tunedin/archive/2009/08/05/press-tour-journal-cmu-s-matt-bomer-goes-white-collar.aspx