Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay stars of the USA network show White Collar!

White Collar is about the unlikely partnership of a con artist and an FBI agent who have been playing cat and mouse for years. Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), a charming criminal mastermind, is finally caught by his nemesis, FBI Agent Peter Burke (Tim DeKay.) When Neal escapes from a maximum-security prison to find his long-lost love, Peter nabs him once again. Rather than returning to jail, Neal suggests an alternate plan: He'll provide his criminal expertise to assist the Feds in catching other elusive criminals in exchange for his eventual freedom. Initially wary, Peter quickly finds that Neal provides insight and intuition that can't be found on the right side of the law.

Follow the show on Twitter!

Also be sure to check out our interview with Tiffani Thiessen and Wille Garson!

The first Q&A participants were Matt Bomer, who plays charming criminal mastermind, Neil Caffery and Tim DeKay, who plays FBI agent Peter Burke.

Matt was asked his initial thoughts on his character and how he felt about the part here's what he had to say:

"Well, what I loved about him from the get go, was that he was flawed. He wasn't-I mean, he had this-he has this veneer of the charming, hyper-intelligent, eloquent, sly mastermind, but underneath, he was really a kind of diehard romantic who would go to any lengths to find the love of his life. Not only was that his motivating force, but it was also kind of his Achilles heel, because then it ends up getting him caught and-but I liked the fact that, even though the fun he puts on is so suave and debonair, underneath there's somebody who is also-has a hard time-has always really relied on himself and doesn't really trust a lot of people."

Matt was also asked which elements of his own personality match up to his character on the show and he claims:

"I don't want to say zero, because I mean, I like-I guess we all like to think of ourselves as romantics. But, I like to think of myself as romantic and I guess I understood that part of him and that's-that to me, has always been the driving force. I mean his compliance with the FBI and all that stuff ultimately is really so he can get closer to Kate and find her. So, to me, that's the core of the character and that's the part that I relate to the most. The suave and debonair stuff is, you know, really fun to get to play, but I would say that I fall short of the Neal Caffrey bar in terms of that."

Matt went on to say when asked about his characters redeeming qualities that:

"Human beings are good, they have shadow, every single one of us has redeeming qualities and every single one of us has qualities that people can hold against us. That's what makes us human.
I'm not interested in playing characters who are perfect or who are, you know-I think the fact that he does try to create that life for himself, is what makes him human and is his redeeming quality. Because he's trying to cover up for ultimately a life before that that was really, as a kid, probably really unfulfilling. And, he-that's his way of controlling and controlling his environment, controlling his life, having some sense of control. And, you know, I think he's some-but he-I don't think he's somebody, he is somebody who wants to have fun in any given circumstances."

It seems Matt did do his homework when researching the role of Neil Caffery. He read a ton of books, everything from Frank Avengale's memoir "Catch Me If You Can"to "The Art of Deception"by Kevin Mitnick and states that all were very informative and assisted in learning the in's and out's of social engineering.
I was able to ask Matt what elements of White Collar help it to stand apart from other crime dramas on television and he answered:

" The signature of USA Network is, characters welcome. So, first and foremost, you're gong to get all the great procedural stuff. It's really intelligently written. We're-I'm no fool, I know this is a writer's medium. You can put the biggest stars on the TV screen, but if the writing's not there, the shows aren't going to last and we're so blessed to have Jeff Easton at the helm. These scripts are really smart and fun and unique. The White Collar world is unique, hasn't really been completely explored yet and so you're going to get all the fun procedural stuff, but at the same time, there's going to be a lot of character elements that come into play as well. That keeps it light and fun and sometimes serious.
So, you do get more back story elements and a lot of interplay, fun interplay between characters that you might not get on a show that's straight procedural."

(Links)