‘White Collar’ season 4, episode 13 preview: Tim DeKay talks acting, directing

Tuesday night’s new “White Collar” episode will be an interesting one for Neal and Peter as they try to take on a challenging new undercover mission, and one that puts Diana very much at risk while doubling as a cigar girl.

Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the episode will be just as interesting. “Empire City” marks the second episode to feature series star Tim DeKay as a director, and he is among a long line of USA Network stars (which includes James Roday, Mark Feuerstein, and Paolo Costanzo) to step into this chair at some point during his series’ run.

So what does DeKay have to say about taking on this sort of additional role? In a conference call with reporters last week, he explained that the talented team around him helped to make directing himself easy, while also stating just what was the toughest aspect of being a director on such an intricate show:

“I think the biggest challenge for any of these episodes is the clock. The writers always write a wonderful big episode, and you always want to be able to have a lot of coverage … You think of all these cool shots, but there just isn’t enough time in the day. So, the biggest challenge is a mixture that you tell the story within those seven days where there is 12 hours allotted and you tell the story in the White Collar fashion, and make sure it’s snappy, it’s fun, it’s clever, and all those other adjectives we can think of for the show.”

DeKay also explained that one of his favorite moments for this episode was getting an opportunity to direct Diahann Caroll for a couple of songs she performed at the Cotton Club. He also joked that after getting the opportunity to direct both this historic place and Yankee Stadium last year, his goal is now to hit up Madison Square Garden.

Want to see more from this episode? Be sure to watch the promo below, and you can check out what happened last week by reading the review over here.

Photo: USA