Once declared ‘TV’s sexiest guy’, Matt Bomer became a hot favourite among critics and fans for his suave portrayal of Neal Caffrey, a multi-talented con artist-turned-criminal informant to veteran actor Tim DeKay, who plays FBI agent Peter Burke, in the standout series White Collar. And after six seasons of edge-of-the-seat entertainment layered with rib-tickling humour, White Collar is ready to say au revoir on Christmas Day.
Charming, sexy and sophisticated, conmen don’t come much slicker than Neal Caffrey, a man with a fondness for art, fine wine, vintage Sy Devore suits, fedoras, and beautiful women. Matt, who glamorised the life of thievery and deception, talks about the immaculately well-groomed Neal in an exclusive chat. “I based much of Neal’s personality on my (at the time) three-year-old. His impulsiveness, enthusiasm, inability to understand the word ‘no’; a bold exterior that hid a pretty open heart. I tried to find ways to make him relatable. The show was, to some extent, escapist fare, so that gave me licence to colour outside the lines at times.”
White Collar’s impending conclusion is a sad blow not just for the fans, but also for Matt, who says bidding adieu after six successful seasons has been incredibly difficult for him personally. Matt, who portrayed the maverick character with effortless perfection, says he will most certainly miss Neal’s “joie de vivre” and being able “to live vicariously through him”. He adds somewhat wistfully, “I’ll miss the familial nature of getting to work with a wonderful cast and crew for six years. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t enjoy working on White Collar.”
Audiences and critics fell for the unusual bromance between the characters played by Matt and Tim DeKay, as they uncovered the mysteries of white collar crime. Matt is all praise for his co-star, “Tim is a wonderful, kind, and a very traditional American soul. He is a very generous actor, and competitive in the sense that he always wants the scene to be the absolute best it can be. I loved working with him, and I learned so much from him. He’s a great actor.”
Apart from gaining critical acclaim, his performance and Greek God looks earned Bomer a large, loyal, and, rarest of all, intergender fan base. The series that is amazingly popular in the US and Europe, enjoys a cult following in India as well. Matt, however, is surprised when you tell him that Neal in particular, has an overwhelming fan-base in the country. The 37-year-old actor exclaims modestly, “That is an enormous and incredible surprise to me! I love India. I’ve always been drawn to it, and I hope that I get to visit sometime soon.
Wow. I need to get out more. The entire process of working on TV can be quite insular.” He adds, “I still find myself surprised at times when someone stops me on the street to talk about the show. It took a while for it to click with me that people were watching it anywhere. In fact, when we were first filming in New York, we didn’t even have to barricade the pedestrians. No one had any clue who we were, so we could film a scene walking down the street without anyone really noticing. There was something really unique and wonderful about that time.”Whether the all the crime cases are all resolved in the end or not, it’s been a great ride, watching two very different men form a very unlikely friendship.
