 [Photo: © 2010 FOX Broadcasting Co.] |
Here’s a conference call interview with Bones star Emily Deschanel that I got to take part in. She was as friendly and personable with everyone on the call, as she always is and I think you will enjoy her answers. She clues us in on why Brennan has reversed her position about having children, tells us some tidbits of information about the upcoming season finale and tells us how she is similar to her character. It’s a great interview and I hope you enjoy it!
BTW – you gave me some of the best and most interesting questions! You are all wonderful! Thanks so much!
Q: Does a small part of Emily kind of – is she kind of waiting for Bones and Booth to finally get into bed, so that question can be put to bed?
E. Deschanel: Well, happily, for Emily, that’s already happened. People just haven’t seen it yet. Yes, I mean, that is a question, probably the most commonly asked question, either by just people on the street or by people interviewing me, so it is nice to tell people that it’s happening. I guess, on May 14th … said, so we already shot that, and it should be surprising and good. I mean, I guess it’s not surprising for people to know that it’s happening, but the way it happens is surprising, I guess.
Q: Anything with regards to the way that it happens, will that spawn a whole new question that people are going to bombard you with from here on?
E. Deschanel: Yes, I’m sure. I’m sure. But I can’t really talk about that part.
Q: Then what can you say about the dynamic with Booth’s brother when he returns? What’s going on with him and Brennan these days?
E. Deschanel: I’m trying to think. I can’t really talk about – what can I say about his role? Let’s just say like his feelings for Brennan haven’t really died, and so there’s some dynamic there, a little bit of a love triangle that happens.
Q: Okay, but her feelings for him, that spark has kind of been doused?
E. Deschanel: We’ll see.
Q: You know, obviously both you and David have voiced concerns over Booth and Brennan’s coupling. What made this a good time to go there, do you think?
E. Deschanel: You know, I think that it’s been four years. It’s something that everyone has been waiting for, for a long time. I think that, you know, Hart Hanson, the creator of the show, wanted to find a clever way to put them together that wouldn’t forever taint everything on the show, and I think he figured out a nice way of doing it that obviously affects things in the future, but doesn’t completely ruin the chemistry that we have. So I think that, you know, I’m glad we waited this long.
I don’t think we should have waited too much longer than this to have something happen, but I think he figured a very clever way to do it that, you know, the concern is always that it will dissipate the romantic tension between the characters. And, you know a lot of shows have died from that, so I think it was a matter of timing and figuring out the right way to do it so that it doesn’t ruin everything for the show. I think he was really careful about putting us together, so I think I’m happy about the way it turned out, and we’ll see how the audience feels, I guess.
Q: Now in the past two weeks, the show has been on Mondays, on Wednesdays, and on Thursday. Can you talk about the fans of the show and the loyalty to it, even with the constant schedule changes?
E. Deschanel: It’s incredible. I mean, we did better on an unscheduled night without a lot of promotion than the show that normally is there, and then even on our regular time slot, so I think it’s frustrating for a lot of people. Just friends of mine have said they didn’t know when the show was on. My grandparents were very confused. You don’t have to be in your 90s though to be confused by this timing, but I think they’re trying to make it up because we got postponed because it was like a chain reaction from an Obama press conference that happened, and I think they’re trying to make it up to us, but it did confuse a lot of people because people thought, oh, we’re on Monday nights now and not on Thursday nights, and we’re used to being bumped around.
But I think it says a lot about our fans and viewers who follow us from night-to-night, even in the same week, and we’re just so grateful for such loyal fans. If we didn’t have them, we would never have survived because we’ve been moved around so many times. It’s kind of ridiculous to think about, so we owe it to our loyal viewers that have stuck around from one night to another and made us even more successful on unscheduled nights, so it feels pretty good to have those kind of loyal followers.
Q: I was wondering about your personal life. Do you see any common traits with your character, so to speak?
E. Deschanel: You know, I think the characters kind of seep into you sometimes. I’ve gotten more particular about things and my attention to detail has become stronger. If you asked Hart, the creator of the show, he would say that I’m the least like my character of anyone on our show, and I think that’s probably true.
I think I’m very different from my character. I’m certainly not as intelligent as she is. I’m a little more personable and able to have conversations with human beings, which she struggles with. But I think if you see David Boreanaz and myself kind of interacting while we’re filming, you will see a lot of similarities in Booth and Brennan. We very much have the kind of brother/sister/married couple/Booth and Brennan type. We’ll kind of talk back and forth with each other and bicker sometimes in a very loving way. We have a great kind of repartee going that kind of mirrors the characters that we have.
And I’d say that I get very focused on my work like she does. I understand kind of losing yourself in your work. I understand – you know, I can relate to anything that she does. It’s just that maybe it’s not as strong in my personality as it is in hers.
Q: Well, can you tell what the audience can expect or what might be a little bit different in the season finale?
E. Deschanel: You’ll see a very softer Brennan. I don’t know if it’s very soft, but Brennan, you see her in a different situation. Like you saw, there was an episode in the season where we went undercover in the circus, and this is similar in that you get to see these characters in a totally kind of different environment at times, and so you see a different side of the character, and so you’ll see kind of a softer side of Brennan.
You know, I was trying to talk to Hart about it, again, the creator of the show, about how my character, what’s different about Brennan in the finale, and it’s harder to put a finger on, and I don’t know how to describe it in words myself about how I chose to do the performance, but it’s different. It’s definitely a different side of her that you haven’t seen before. But it’s still the same Brennan. But it’s just totally different, in a different situation.
Q: Have you continued to resist visiting a real morgue and still have never been in the presence of a real dead body? And do you think you’ll ever give in on that front?
E. Deschanel: Yes, the status the still the same, I have never been to a real morgue.
I’ve never seen a dead body in my life, and just to fill anyone in, I chose not to do that. I didn’t – I knew that it would affect me. I’ve never … a dead body, and an actor told me that he went to the morgue when he was researching a part and it really affected him negatively, and I believe in using your imagination as an actor, and that’s the greatest tool we have. And my character is supposed to be very at ease with dead bodies, and so I didn’t want to risk changing that and feel all of a sudden uneasy, and so I chose not to go to the morgue, and I still have not been to a morgue.
You know, the forensic consultant who works on our show, Donna, she is always trying to get me to go either to the morgue or, I don’t know, go meet with some medical examiner. I met with a medical examiner, but that’s not really what my job is. I’ve met forensic anthropologists before, of course, but I’ve never seen them at work. I bet before we finish the show, in the end, I’ll end up going to one of these things, but we’ll see. You know, it’s like, once I start filming, I’d almost be open to it now on some level because I don’t think it would affect me as negatively as it would have in the past, but I’m so used to seeing fake dead bodies, but you just add the smell to it, and that’s all you do.
But who knows. It’s hard when we’re working because we work such long hours, and my weekends get filled up with a lot of different press things, etc., so maybe during a hiatus I’ll go, but we’ll see. Anyway, that’s my answer for you.
Q: Do you think that there’s going to be more big travel episodes like the London shows in future seasons? And, if so, if you had your choice, where would you want it to be, like maybe your favorite travel destination or just someplace that you’ve wanted to visit but never have?
E. Deschanel: I’d love to go to Morocco or Egypt. I think those would be appropriate places for Brennan to be at a dig, and then Booth has to come over because I suspect that there’s a fresh murder that we find or something like that, and I just have always wanted to go to those places, so I guess that would be a cheap vacation for me. But it’s not up to me. But other places have been discussed like Spain and France. I think it would really depend on what kind of stories they could create, and it would have to be a place where we’re popular, where people watch us a lot, so we’ll see.
Q: I was wondering if you could kind of tell us how the plan with Booth’s brother is going to play out? Is he going to stick around into next season?
E. Deschanel: I would imagine so. I haven’t talked to Hart about that because it’s more a question for him. They’re starting to write next season now, so they probably will know better, but I would imagine he’ll pop up there. It’s kind of a relationship that is not exactly resolved, so it would make sense for him to come back. We’ll see what happens.
E. Hochberg What do you think about Brennan’s decision to want a child after kind of being vocal against that? Is that a direction you were happy to go in?
E. Deschanel: You know I like this decision because I like that one thing I loved about Hart’s characters from the beginning was that they have contradictions, and I think that I always look at that in a script because people have contradictions. You know, so many people write a script and say, well, this character is rigid, and she never changes her mind, and then they will never have her change her mind. But in real life, people do change and surprise you and, whether you like it or not, they change direction in their life sometimes. And they have contradictions.
I kind of love it for that reason. I like the fact that this character – at the same time, I really did like the fact that this was a woman who said she did not want children, and you don’t see that many represented very much in television or film where a woman says vocally she doesn’t want to have children. And, you know, how many times have I talked to many women who do not want children and are very happy with that choice, so I love the fact that that was represented, but I also love the fact that she’s a character who changes her mind…and you’ll see there are some twists and turns in that episode that will surprise everyone.
Yes, I’m happy with it. I thought it was very interesting. And I don’t think it’s like a kind of situation where Brennan just changes her mind, and it’s done in a very interesting way, and then, like I said, there’s twists and turns, so I guess I don’t want to say much more than that.
Continue Reading Part 2