Willie Garson as Mozzie and Matt Bomer as Neal on WHITE COLLAR
“Stanford is still a male. That’s all I can tell you,” said actor Willie Garson, who is beloved for his portrayal of Stanford Blatch throughout the Sex and the City series and the first and upcoming second film. While the Sex and the City details were slim during a recent phone call with Garson, there were definitely comparisons to be made between his work on the still-popular HBO series and his current gig as informant Mozzie on USA’s newest hit series White Collar.
First, Garson stated he doesn’t see being closely associated with a character as a negative. “It’s mostly a blessing. What’s great about television is over the course of seasons, it gives you such an opportunity to explore everything about a person from top to bottom, which you don’t often get in movies because you only have two hours to tell a story. In this case [with White Collar], certainly in this first season, we have 15 hours to tell a story. So each episode, you try and add one more facet of the person. This character definitely shares a lot of my fear of big business and big government and my kind of cynical outlook.”
Sarah Jessica Parker and Garson in the first SATC movie
In talking about the Sarah Jessica Parker series, Garson added that he’s trying to put a little of himself in the new role. “In Sex in the City, I definitely shared the kind of snarky wit and style of Stanford. In each of them you find things inside of yourself that hopefully have something to do to form the character that has been created for you. In this case, the wonderful Jeff Eastin created this guy [Mozzie] and it’s our job to service it and bring what we can to it, so that’s what I’m trying to do here with this guy.”
Another similarity with his former series is that White Collar is also set in New York City and the Big Apple is used like another character in each episode. “I find a lot of shows shoot in New York and they might as well be shooting on a sound stage,” Garson said. “On our show if I’m talking in a scene, we really make a strong effort to have basically the Empire State Building sticking out of my head. There’s such an energy and there’s much architecture and people and vibe on the street that we try to grab all of that as much as we possibly can. It does provide an energy and just kind of a sea of humanity that really helps us in terms of telling the stories.”
So far in the episodes, Garson explained further, “we’ve shot right at the Central Park fountain. We shot in Grand Central Station…crazy massive backdrops that really inform how big it is behind all of us.”
WHITE COLLAR: Tim Dekay, Tiffani Thiessen, Bomer and Garson
The role of Mozzie, old friend and informant for con man Neal Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer), came about unexpectedly due to another role Garson took that shot outside of the United States. “It’s actually kind of an interesting story. Fox International Television Productions was making an off-market TV show for the international market called Mental, which was shooting in Bogota, Columbia. They asked me to go down and do an episode and I went and did one because I’d never been to Bogota, Colombia. When I got back, I got a call from them and they said you were wonderful. You saved the show. It’s amazing, amazing. Would you like a series?”
Of course, Garson said yes and soon was reading the pilot script for White Collar, which immediately intrigued him. “Those good scripts are few and far between right now. It was just a wonderful, fresh and energetic setting for a show that Jeff Eastin created. Fox had teamed up already with USA on Burn Notice and done very well and this was their next partnership with them and instead of just doing like a spin-off of Burn Notice or Burn Notice II, they came up with a fresh, unique twist and so I love the script. It always ends up being the script, always, so that attracted me immediately.”
The role of Mozzie was not without its share of challenges as its something of a change of pace for the New Jersey native. “My characters have always been very showy. This character kind of operates under the radar and that was an interesting difference in many of the characters I’ve played, certainly from Stanford and certainly from NYPD Blue, certainly a little more behind the scenes kind of guy.”
Garson also shared that he thinks Mozzie works best when he’s working with Bomer’s character, Neal as opposed to being folded into the big ensemble scenes. “The reality is when you buy me, you get what you get, so that’s kind of what they’re trapped with is that I’m a little bit of a hambone. But I find that [Mozzie’s] really only quirky and interesting more so when he’s alone with Neal Caffrey played by Matt Bomer. They have a very strong and deep partnership. So I like to say that he’s more the people person and I’m more the quiet, I should be able to fade into the background if there’s anyone else around. That was interesting for me to try to play.”
And how is it for Garson to play scenes at a more testosterone level than what he may have had on Sex and the City? “You know, it’s a different energy, but actors are strange animals. We all try and take care of each other the same way. I think it’s no secret that women in the entertainment business certainly who have pursued for years a career in acting and theatre are no shrinking violets. So they’re not like the obvious stereotype of a quiet girl, so there’s really not that much difference. Also the men working in theatre are not kind of macho, macho guys. We have to be really in touch with our emotions and very sensitive, sometimes almost in a softer way we have to be able to tap into our emotions as well, so the same for men. So I find actors to be wonderful, interesting, worldly people, whether they’re male or female. So it really doesn’t make that much of a difference to me.”
Garson wanted to make sure to express that there are definitely differences between Mozzie and himself. “I think that myself, Willie Garson, is much more conservative in terms of where am I living, where’s my next meal coming from, all of those kinds of things. I’m more of a businessman than Mozzie probably is. Mozzie just goes with God and Willie doesn’t.”
At the end of the day, however, Garson just hopes people watch White Collar and said there are things in the show that personally amaze him. “I think it’s interesting take on what people will do to try and scam people, so people can know that there are smart people looking out for all of us and trying to bring these people down.” Garson also said that the state of the economy in our country can bring people to be interested in the show, too. “I worked as a dishwasher for $4 an hour and I know in these times, there are people who have worked really hard and watched their whole life’s savings go away. I think it’s a great twist on seeing how there are people out there with good intentions trying to make sure that everyone kind of takes care of each other and does the right thing. I think that’s a really good message for right now and the show is really energetic and fun and fast paced.”
Finally, Garson joked that it helps to have good-looking people star on the show, too. ”It’s really unfortunate how horrifying the people are on the show to look at. Tiffani Thiessen (who plays the wife of the FBI agent played by Tim DeKay) is just so hideous and Matt Bomer is so unfortunately unattractive, so I think people once they tune in, they’re hooked once you give it a shot.”
White Collar airs every Friday night at 10/9c on the USA network.
Jim Halterman spends his days interviewing the top tier of talent and creative forces in the television world and then, because he's that kind of guy, he brings it all to YOU! And, because we all like free stuff, check back often for giveaways!! 
