'Burglars and Baby Talk!'

America’s favorite teen-throb sweetheart, Tiffani Thiessen, is reentering TV Land with her role as Elizabeth Burke on the hit USA Network series, 'White Collar.'

The smart and agile crime-drama is arguably one of the best new series to hit television this year. The chemistry between Thiessen’s onscreen by-the-book FBI agent husband, Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) and the irresistibly charming con artist Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) makes for the perfect odd-couple pairing.

The series, set in Manhattan, intrigues viewers with it’s relevance to the recent white collar crimes of Wall Street but instead of taking the predictable route, White Collar smartly takes the plot lines in a different direction. From rare art forgery to top secret Canadian currency printing tactics, White Collar’s modern cinematography style and humorous script elements revitalize the age-old cop-drama pretense.

Exclusive Magazine had the recent opportunity to speak with Tiffani Thiessen about the exciting premier of White Collar, the onscreen chemistry with her costars and how it feels to be back in front of the cameras.

Thanks for joining us today! I’m sure I’m the millionth person to tell you this, but it never gets old. I want to say congratulations on your pregnancy! "Thank you so much. We are absolutely thrilled."

Now, as a first-time mother, how do you think that it will play out balancing your roles and responsibilities of motherhood and your part on ‘White Collar’? "You know, that’s a very good question in the sense that I really don’t know being that I am a first-time mom, so it’ll be a very different kind of thing for me being that I’ll be working and being a mother at the same time. There are millions of people who do it. My mom did it herself, so I know I can handle it, but it’ll be a very new experience, so it’s hard to say what is going to be like. It’ll be all brand new for me."

So what made you want to be a part of ‘White Collar’? "Ever since I read the script, which has been a little over a year ago now, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the characters. I fell in love with the show. And more and more, when the cast was brought together, the more excitement I had for the show and wanting to be a part of it. This is really the first time I feel like in my whole entire career, which has been over 25, 26 years, of doing this, that I finally feel like I’m kind of playing a role a little closer to home for me, which is kind of exciting."

The onscreen relationship between you and Tim’s character, Peter, seems to be loving, but also a bit strained by his professional commitments. Now, with the charming and charismatic Neal Caffrey entering the picture, how do you think this partnership will affect Elizabeth and Peter’s marriage as the show develops? "I don’t know if I would actually use the word strained. I think in every marriage there’s always the challenge of making time and making priorities in their relationship when people have careers, and what you will start to see more and more is my career, being that it takes up a lot of my time as well. I think it’s going to give a lot of, not so much looking into Peter’s career and how it affects our marriage. There’s also my side of it as well."

"I think she is very understanding to that. She’s been living with it for so long and knows what he does for a living, and she knows what she married. I don’t think there’s a strain to it. I think there’s a challenge. I think probably the challenge is the word I could use for that. I think what Neal brings into it is that I think my husband on the show is very kind of black and white in the way he thinks, and I think Neal is definitely much more colorful, and I think he will definitely teach my husband a little more of the colorful side of being romantic and all those things that you do need in a marriage as well."

I know you did a short film a couple years ago that you directed, and I wanted to know is that something you still want to be doing? Is there a chance maybe you could direct an episode of White Collar? "I do. You’re so sweet. Yes, they definitely know directing is something that’s in my thinking of wanting to do more and more, and it all really just depends on time and all that. I wanted to make sure that when we started the show my focus was on my character and what I’m doing as an actress. Now with my new role coming as a mother, it’s going to be a little more challenging, but it’s definitely something I want to do more of, so yes."

You’ve been in the business since you were very young. If you weren’t in the entertainment business, what else would you want to be doing? "It’s so funny. Last year when we did the pilot, we really didn’t know what Elizabeth’s character was going to do for a living. They had some ideas, and they kind of changed it, and then I had come to Jeff Eastin, our creator of the show and said, you know, it’s funny. I think it could work, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do if I wasn’t an actor. I’d always wanted to be an event planner, and I think it could work really well for Elizabeth’s character being that she’s in New York City. We could really show the city in a different light, and they loved it. I have to say funny enough, that was my idea, and that’s exactly what I would do if I wasn’t an actor."

Did you ever think that your event planning skills would be useful to the FBI, and when will they bring you in as an official paid consultant? "I know, really. I don’t know. That’s a good question. That could actually be kind of funny. No, it was actually when we shot that episode, it was an episode we shot a little later, and they really enjoyed the episode so much, they pulled it up and made it a little closer to the beginning of the show, which is great. It was really fun to do, and it was really fun to work more with Matt and the guys in general, which was great. Again, like I had mentioned, you’ll see certain episodes that I might be a little heavier in, but the event planning thing is exciting because, like I said, I’ve always wanted to do that on the side or if I ever wanted to give up acting, that’s what I wanted to do. It’s kind of fun to live out a little bit of a dream of mine on my actual job now."

Well, we’ve seen on the show that Neal has escaped from prison for love. What’s the most romantic, and cheesiest thing a guy’s ever done for you? "Oh, gosh. Well, my husband himself is definitely romantic. I mean, he is romantic almost every day whether it’s leaving me cute little notes somewhere throughout the house or the way he proposed to just the day we got married. He was amazing and romantic in everything he did, so I’m blessed to have a husband like that. The cheesiest, God, that would be really hard. I wouldn’t want to out anybody because I feel like anybody who wants to put themselves and their heart out there is a wonderful thing, and we shouldn’t put them down for it, right?"

So, what is it like to work on such a male-dominated cast? "It’s great, actually. It’s not my first time, so I feel like I’m definitely, I have the experience. With past shows, I did a show called Fastlane that was literally me and two guys. It’s funny. I don’t know why, but I tend to gravitate to shows that have a lot of male co-stars. I grew up with two brothers, so I guess it’s just normal for me to be around guys. It’s fun. It’s where I feel comfortable, I have to say."

What kind of pressures do you think that women or you, yourself, still face as far as looks and beauty pressures and things like that? "You’re right. It’s all there. It will never go away. I don’t think our business and the entertainment business in general will ever just be okay with how people are. I think we’re in a business that critiques everything we do, and you kind of just take it with a grain of salt. I look at my grandmother, and I think she’s aged beautifully, so I hope that I could be a smidgen of how she’s aged."

"There’s nothing you can do. All you can do is take of yourself and do the things that make you feel good and make you healthy and age appropriately, but there’s always going to be people out there are going to say something, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Like I said, you have to take it with a grain of salt."

So, what would you say to those that haven’t seen 'White Collar' yet to convince them to watch? "Oh gosh, well, besides having really cute guys on the show, it’s definitely the type of TV and movies that I like to see. I’m a huge fan of The Thomas Crown Affair and those kinds of feels of movies and shows and 48 Hours, which is so interesting, Catch Me If You Can, things like that. If people are really into those kinds of movies and those kind of story-telling, they have to watch this show. It is so absolutely entertaining. The characters are so rich and so fun to watch and follow."

"As well as you see New York City in a completely different way. It’s shot in a beautiful way. It’s interesting, a lot of shows that are shot in New York City can be a little more dark and gray, and this show really, I think, kind of captures New York City in a really beautiful light, and it’s nice."

For more information on the new hit show ‘White Collar’, be sure to catch the show on USA Network, Fridays at 10 PM!

Read Exclusive Magazine’s article with ‘White Collar’s Willie Garson (Mozzie) here!

Interviewed by: Erin M. Stranyak