'White Collar' star Matt Bomer is our Must List Summer Crush

Image Credit: Eric Ogden/USA NetworkIf you think Matt Bomer is crush-worthy wearing an expertly tailored suit as con-man Neal Caffrey on USA’s White Collar, wait until you see him in jeans and a t-shirt in our Summer Must List Issue. Bomer’s charm, smooth moves, and piercing blue eyes added up to him being named our Must Summer Crush. Needless to say, we were pretty excited to talk to him for our special double issue about White Collar, his favorite summer memory, and what’s he’s Musting after himself this summer.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There’s a lot of chemistry among the cast, especially between you and Tim DeKay. Was that instantaneous?
MATT BOMER: I think it was certainly with Tim and I from the get-go when we tested together. We spend a good portion of the day keeled over, laughing. That’s not a typical experience on sets, so we all feel really grateful to have a set that appreciates humor and allows it. When you work crazy TV hours, you got to have a good sense of humor.

What’s it like to film in New York City?
It’s amazing. New York City is really a character on the show. On so many shows, you get the gritty, dark, dirty corners of New York, and we celebrate the city. We shoot up. We’re looking up at buildings and seeing the blue sky. We also get to see the great upper crust aspects of the city. Multimillion-dollar brownstones, chandeliers that are six stories high, places that even if you’ve lived in New York for years, you don’t really get to see. We’re a crime show, but there aren’t a lot of guns or sex or nudity. It’s pretty clean.

Neal is such a suave guy. What does it take to be that much of a charmer?
Confidence. It’s a big part of the social engineering game. Presence as well, just being able to interact with people and thin slice them very well and figuring out what pushes their buttons and what charms them. Underneath all that, Neil is a die-hard romantic whose weak spot is his romantic life.

What will we see with Neal’s love life?
The love of his life died in [last year's] season finale, so there’s a part of him that’s really obviously crushed by that. He’s also a very proactive guy so he’s not going to sit around and cry about it. He’s going to find out who did it and how best to avenge her death. That’s a big struggle for him this season. But the fun thing about Neal is he never passes up a chance to flirt. No matter what’s going on, if there’s somebody cute, he’s going to make the most of it. It makes the day a little more interesting.

Now that it’s officially summer, what’s one of your favorite summer memories?
I used to go to sports camp every summer. I’d make a lot of new friends and it was all athletic. It was basically a place for parents to send their kids to run out all their summer energy for two weeks. My parents knew if they kept me active, I’d stay out of trouble.

So you got into a lot of trouble other seasons of the year?
Oh, I’m just going to leave it at that!

You’re on our Must List, but what’s on yours?
[The movie] The Kids Are All Right is amazing. The performances are insanely good. Julianne Moore is going to wreck you. This is the best I’ve ever seen her, and I’ve seen everything she’s ever done. I like the story and I think it’s a great alternative to the big summer popcorn blockbusters.

Inception is my big studio movie of the summer. That looks amazing. I’m a huge fan of Leonardo [DiCaprio]‘s and [director] Christopher Nolan’s. It looks amazing just from the trailers. The dream world looks unbelievable.

[The book] Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man by Bill Kleg. It’s an addiction memoir about a rising literary agent whose life spirals out of control when he gets addicted to crack. I read about in The New Yorker and New York Times. It really intrigued me. Man, if they ever did a movie about this, I’d want to do it. The summertime, people get into that salacious type stuff. This one is really gripping and entertaining.

For more on Bomer, including crush-worthy photos from his New York City shoot, check out our Best of Summer special double issue, on newsstands now!

More EW Summer Must List:
This week’s cover: Your Summer Must List
Tom Cruise made our Summer Must List!