Although the crux of White Collar is Neal & Peter’s relationship, aided and abetted by their two other partners, Mozzie and Elizabeth, the crime-solving wouldn’t work or be believable without the stellar FBI agents who comprise Agent Burke’s team. Sharif Atkins (Agent Clinton Jones) and Marsha Thomason (Agent Diana Barrigan) sat down with the press at San Diego Comic Con 2010 in July to discuss their characters and what it was like working on this show.
In thinking about team dynamics, one wonders how another FBI agent, less invested in Neal Caffrey and less aware of the inner workings of the mind of the con man that has allowed Peter to remain a step ahead of Neal, would feel about the extensive involvement of a con man in their work and in the boss’ confidence. “What does my character think of Neal?” Atkins echoed, “Well, I’ve accepted the fact that my boss, Agent Burke, has taken him under his wing. But for all the smiling and palling around I may want to do with him, we keep him on a short leash. Because at the end of the day, he’s a con man. And he’s got that in his blood. And he does it very well.”
He indicated that though he doesn’t get to play that distrust deliberately, he does toy with it a bit as his acting “little secret.” Sharif said it would be an interesting twist to play Jones as “a little bit concerned about this guy who’s the slickest and the smartest.” But he cautioned that the audience would have to wait and see, for “Jeff Eastin keeps it pretty close to his chest.” Still, more than once, Atkins conceded, Neal has reeled him in, as Neal does with so many others.
Atkins is more forthcoming when talking about Jones’s relationship with Agent Diana Barrigan, although he started out with a tease, “You know, Agent Barrigan thinks she’s hot as all get up…” However, he was quick to point out they had “a good working relationship. I think it’s more the brother-sister kind of thing, looking out for each other. And I think that’s a cool relationship. Actually we have a couple of scenes coming up that accentuates that.”
Sharif Atkins Does More
In fact, Atkins revealed that in future episodes, “they have Jones doing a bit more, getting out of the van, getting into the mix a bit more.” But it is something he’s learned to be patient with, as he likens it to: “It’s like coming off the bench in the fourth quarter: where do you need me, where do you want to put me to do what I can to show what this show’s really about. As an actor, you look forward to the interaction, to developing the character and all that.” Thus, he has confidence that with the way the show is set up, there will be plenty to go around.
Does that mean that he’ll become buddies with Neal any time soon? “I don’t think they’ll be writing that any time soon,” Atkins replied. “I don’t think Agent Jones gets into the apartment. You see Peter getting into the apartment is a big step enough. You know being in that Mozzie phase. That’s his domain.”
Usually when characters work this well together, it’s because of the camaraderie behind the scenes. Asked how happy the set was, given the long working hours, Atkins replied that it was amicable. “We joke a lot. We’re to ourselves a lot. We have fun a lot. Like during the course of the day, you can only say, ‘hey how’re you doing?’ so many times. You can only talk about whatever you’re talking about, so often. So it’s one of those things, while we’re on set, we get the job done, we have a lot of fun, we talk about what was on TV last night.”
Marsha Thomason also confirmed the cast hung out outside the set. “We go out on the weekends sometimes. But Matt and Tim tend to go back to LA, because we’re shooting in New York as you know. They go back and spend the weekends there. We’ve had some dinners. I hang out with Willie quite a bit because we have a bit more down time. But Tim and Matt work all the time. There really is no time to play outside... they really work all day, every day pretty much. So they go home to their families on weekends.”
She made it clear how much she enjoys working on White Collar. “I like the people I work with. I like the project. I like the people who like the show. They treat me really nice. I’m having a great time.”
Knowing how actors always say similar about shows they are currently employed on, she admitted to lying on some shows in the past, saying “oh, we have a great time, oh we really like each other, blah blah.” But this time she doesn’t have to tow the company line because she feels great about the series she’s on. “I think it shows. My energy—I’m really excited to hang out with those people on a daily basis. Sometimes we’re working for 6, 8 hours – long, long days. And we really get along.”
Marsha also revealed she respects them all as actors as well. “I love watching Tim. Actually, I love watching Matt, too, but I have more scenes with Tim and he’s just… really good. A pleasure to watch. Sometimes I’m in a scene and I’m watching and it’s time to act and I’m uhhhh... you caught me, I was watching Tim.”
New Scripts Excite Marsha Thomason
In describing how each new script excited her, Marsha related that they get the scripts only one or two days before shooting, and once they finish an episode, they, too, don’t know what’s coming next. “So I get to the end of episode 2 and it says Diana has the music box, I’m like, ‘Ohmigod, who am I? What’s happening?’ So yeah, I’m thrilled. And my involvement… really… now… My involvement with the music box continues throughout the season. So that’s been really fun for me.”
She even admitted that her possession of the music box was as big a surprise to her as it was to the audience. “Got the gun. Got the music box. Great fun,” she quipped. But no matter how little they know about the arc or the background going in or how much learning they do on the go, she acknowledged that: “It’s not like when I was in Lost where I didn’t know what I was doing from one scene to another.”
And just to make sure things didn’t get too serious in the pressroom, Jeff Eastin stopped momentarily at our roundtable on the way to another one, clapped Sharif on the shoulder and shouted out, “It’s all lies…”
To see if anyone was weaving tales, tune into new episodes in January on the USA Network. The next article in this series will finish up with the two Jeffs sharing more secrets on writing WC.
Crystal Taylor - I'm a writer of TV one-hour scripts, screenplays, novels, short stories, articles, and poetry. I'm most proud of a story (episode outline) ...
