Tim DeKay on Million-Dollar Chandeliers, Tell Me You Love Me and White Collar's Capers

Does it bother you that Tell Me You Love Me is remembered -- perhaps by people who weren't regular viewers -- more for its graphic sex scenes than its great writing or acting?

No, honestly it doesn't. Those people are going to talk about that aspect of the show because they didn't watch it enough to understand it. That show had a very "selective audience," for lack of a better term. It's amazing how all walks of life come up to me and say something about that show. I mean, really, all walks of life. The HBO marketing department must have just been confused beyond belief because there is nothing that makes sense about who comes up to talk to me about that show.

What types of people approach you?

College kids will come up to me and then I'll turn around and a 45-year-old construction worker will ask me about it. I stop and say, "Wait, you sat there and watched [Tell Me You Love Me] with you your wife?" Retired people come up to me, people of all ethnicities. So when all of that happens, you think, "OK good, people were watching." But we did offend some people.

It was pretty controversial. What did you take away from that project?

Not to get philosophical, but it's great when you do work as an actor and you enjoy your character and then you start to realize that you are actually doing something you like for a living. And it was also fulfilling knowing that we were telling stories that really affected people and changed people. You start to realize, "Oh, I'm making a difference." It was positive, because at first I was nervous to go into that show because I knew it would stir up controversy.

You have a really impressive guest star resume. Is it possible to be fulfilled by a television job when you're only on a show for a few episodes?

It is, actually -- usually because with a guest star role, the characters are sometimes more interesting.

Which of those roles stands out to you?

I guest starred on a show called Standoff with Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt where I played an air traffic controller who just loses it and holds people hostage. It was wonderfully fulfilling because it was me in one space talking to Ron's character throughout most of the episode.

Confinement sometimes brings the best and worst out of people.

I have always said [to the writers that] I would love to see an episode of White Collar where Neal and Peter get stuck in an elevator. We would just run the gamut of emotions and at the end of the episode, the doors would fly open and you see the two of them singing some song. I keep suggesting it. We'll see.

Pages: 1 2