Tim DeKay discusses Peter and Neal's trust issues

Tim DeKay plays Special Agent Peter Burke on USA Network’s White Collar. He was kind enough to give me some insight into Peter and Neal’s complicated relationship. The next episode of White Collar “Empire City,” is directed by DeKay himself, so be to check it out on Tuesday! He does a fantastic job.

If you’ve seen the latest episode, then you know that Elizabeth has asked Neal to lie to Peter, and Peter being Peter picks up on this. In the episode, Peter makes a big deal about the fact that Neal lies directly to his face, and DeKay had this to say about why Peter is so focused on this:

If you go back, Neal and Peter have never lied to each other to their faces. Now one might argue there have been many lies of omittance. There have been a lot of lies of not coming forward telling the other person what is going on, but regardless if Peter has ever asked Neal a point blank question, he has never lied to his face.

Now the trust issue isn’t something entirely new for Peter and Neal. It’s been a part of White Collar since the very beginning. DeKay believes it is an important fixture to the show:

I think it’s important, and it’s great that we have it. There is always that dynamic of Peter and Neal are always on a case, enjoying each other’s company, although they’ll never admit it to dear friends, best friends. And yet there is always a secret. There is always something going on. There is always a chess game going on, and they are not quite revealing everything that needs to be revealed. And most of the time those reveals aren’t given to each other because they think it is benefiting the other person by not telling them. It seems like I’ve said many times as Peter, I’m not going to tell Neal about this that or the other thing for his own good.

As for if Peter and Neal will ever really trust each other, DeKay has this to say:

I think the trust issue will always be there. It just never is a hundred percent. It can’t be. Neal is a criminal, no matter how much we love him. He is stolen a lot of things from a lot of people, and Peter is an FBI agent…When it comes to other things they can trust each other implicitly. When it comes to that, when it comes to those kinds of dealings, they will never trust each other implicitly.

And as far as his latest directing venture, DeKay shares that “it was just such a hoot to shoot Diahann Carroll at the Cotton Club.”

Leave me your thoughts in a comment below. Do you think Peter and Neal would work great as a team if they trusted each other all the time? Make sure you hit subscribe!