Yesterday, a number of us got to take part in a conference call interview with Bones star Emily Deschanel and Bones creator Hart Hanson. They filled us in on things we can still look forward to this season and were a lot of fun. Here’s the entire transcript of the interview. [You may also be interested in last week's interview with the inspiration for Bones, Kathy Reichs.]
Q: What kind of impact will the final two episodes have on the Booth-Brennan relationship?
Hart Hanson: We had an interesting dilemma this year. We sort of had two big finale type shows this year because we wanted the 100th episode to ring on the Booth-Brennan relationship. Lo and behold, the season finale has to live up to that or at least be as interesting as the 100th. I think we were fairly successful in getting an interesting episode out of our 100th episode. Emily, you’ll have interrupt me if I start to blab too much. I think our season ender, in its own way, has as much impact on the future of the show as the 100th episode did. Was that oblique enough?
Emily Deschanel: I think you said it accurately. “Was it oblique enough?” Yes. We can’t give too much away, you see. What happens in the season finale is as impactful for the relationship as the 100th episode was. There’s a lot to live up to after the 100th episode. I think Hart did a really good job writing the script.
Q: Do you usually hear anything from the fans about the storylines?
Hart Hanson: We definitely hear from our fans. I’ve talked to a few other show runners and I think we have the noisiest, most involved fans if my experience is any indication, and they certainly do not shy away from commenting. I don’t know how everyone feels, but I see that as a very, very positive thing even when I’m getting hollered at.
Emily Deschanel: I think it’s a positive thing too. It means that people care even if they disagree with something. I appreciate people caring so much. But Hart definitely has more experience with the fans directly than I do because he’s a tweeter. Twitters. He’s on Twitter.
Hart Hanson: Be careful there, Emily.
Emily Deschanel: He tweets. He’s twittering. Something. You get a direct line to the fans.
Q: How do you see the evolution of Brennan over the years?
Emily Deschanel: I think you’ve seen through the seasons Brennan opening up a lot more. She’s definitely had a hard time socially with people and knowing what to say and to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and where they’re coming from. That’s one reason why she chose science as a field. and she’s put up a lot of walls — because of being abandoned as a child and what she went through believing her parents were dead or missing as well as her brother leaving her.
I think that the walls are starting to come down. You even see at the end of the season she’s questioning her field — solving murders. It’s a pretty huge thing that she’s even thinking about that because it’s something she’s chosen to escape into. It’s mainly from her relationship with Booth who has opened her up and encouraged her to be more sociable. I guess a higher social intelligence. It was just fun to discover this character learning how to interact with people. I think she’s gotten better. She’s still the same person. She still has difficulty, but she’s making improvements for sure.
Q: Do you anticipate fan reaction to the season finale?
Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s the transcript of the interview with author Kathy Reichs. She wrote this week’s episode of Bones and the show is loosely based on her life.
Q: I was wondering, do you see Brennan as two separate people: The character on TV and one that your readers know?
Kathy: No, I really don’t. I think of book Tempe and TV Tempe and I think of TV Tempe as an earlier point in book Tempe’s life. She’s 30-something rather than 40-something. She’s unmarried. She‘s living in Washington, which I find very appropriate because that’s where I started my career at the Smithsonian. It’s the very first place I ever worked with skeletons, so I think of TV Tempe as a prequel.
Q: Were you told which intern to use and what needed to happen in the B-plot line of “Witch and Wardrobe” or was that your specific idea?
Kathy: That was pretty much formulated by the executive producers. I was told that we were going to be using Clark.
Q: Well, we just had our hundredth episode of Bones not long ago. I was wondering how you see the longevity of the show.
Q: Kathy: Well, I think we should go to a thousand episodes. Yes, what do I know, but everything I hear is that we’re going strongly. It’s been picked up for the sixth season, of course, and that hopefully we can go several more beyond that.
Q: You’re on Twitter. How do you see social networking becoming such an important part of promotion and interacting with fans?
I just hung up from the conference call interview with author Kathy Reichs. Her books and life were the inspiration for the TV series Bones. She was delightful and talkative and everyone seemed to enjoy talking to her.
Of course, I will post the entire transcript of the interview as soon I can, but here are a couple of bits of info to tease you and get you to check back for the entire interview.
Kathy answered my question with advice for anyone aspiring to become a forensic anthropologist and she seemed pleased that some of you are now considering that as a career. [Thanks for the question, Daphné]
She told us her opinion about Booth and Brennan getting together.
She also clarified a bit about how the book character of Tempe is similar and different from the TV Tempe and where each of them is similar or different from her. It’s pretty cool, I can’t wait to post it for you!
Karen Jobim asked about the rumor that Kathy is writing a young adult novel. Kathy said that she is working one and it will be out in November. She gave a touch of info about the new character that this novel will involve and it’s not Temperance! She has another Tempe novel coming out in August too.
Be sure to check back for the entire interview!
As you may already know by now, Kathy Reichs wrote the upcoming new Bones episode entitled The Witch in the Wardrobe. She’s the author of many great novels that involve a main character named Temperance Brennan. Her Tempe is very different from the TV Tempe, but a very cool character, regardless.
Kathy Reichs is also a very well known forensic anthropologist and Hart Hanson has said that he loosely based the Bones series on her. So she’s a fascinating woman with a lot of great insight on the show.
Now I just found out that I will be able to participate in an interview with her this Friday. I’m thrilled, of course, but would like to ask some questions that you would like to know too. So please leave a comment with your questions and I’ll do my best to ask the most popular ones.
Thanks so much, as always! I look forward to reading your questions and to the interview!!
Earlier this week, Bones star David Boreanaz took the time to join a number of us on a conference call. We each got to ask only one or two questions, but I’ve put together the entire conversation for you to read. Instead of paraphrasing it, this is exactly what David had to say to our questions:
Q: What was it like to shoot that long-awaited and highly built-up and two kissing scenes in the hundredth episode?
D. Boreanaz: I didn’t necessarily look at it like a hundredth episode. I looked at it as an episode that I was really fortunate to, again, be able to direct like I did last year. To me it’s just the work in taking care of that as best as I possibly could and as creatively as I could. The insight that I had going into it, knowing the storyline and knowing exactly how I wanted to do those two moments, I think that the audience is going to be really pleased. I certainly was for both those moments, and I think we see both those characters grow in a way from the past where they came from, some insight, and also in the future to see what’s going to happen with them next. It was entertaining and a lot of fun and I enjoyed the challenges.
Q: I wanted to ask a question for all the Bones trivia lovers out there. In one of the promotional video clips, you gave us a list of items that Booth carries in his pockets. I was wondering, could you please review the list and give us your explanation why each of those items is significant to Booth?
D. Boreanaz: Sure. I think I’ll keep some as a mystery as well, since a lot of things have not been seen yet. I carry a gold Zippo lighter, which is reminiscent of his training days in the Army as a ranger; he’s got a poker chip to remind him of his gambling issues that we never really tapped into with Booth; some dice in his pocket, in his right pocket, that he likes to fiddle around with if he’s interrogating people, again a reference to his gambling days; a St. Christopher medal that he keeps on him, again, because he’s a religious kind of a guy so he keeps St. Christopher to protect him. And let’s see, what else do I have in my arsenal? I wear a Wittnauer watch on my left wrist. I can’t tell you what’s inscribed because maybe that will come out in an episode one day. And, that’s pretty much it.
Q: I wanted to know, do you think there’s another 100 episodes in the show and in you?
D. Boreanaz: Wow, that’s an interesting question. I think that there are plenty more episodes. It doesn’t matter if it’s – I started this venture with the pilot and didn’t even think about where it was going to go and just take it show-to-show, episode-to-episode. The future’s very bright for the show. I see it as a show that’s really found its legs and can really go to some really unique places. We’re now actually shooting the season finale, so I take it episode-to-episode, show-to-show, and don’t set myself up too much for discouragement if it were to end tomorrow.
Q: I would like to know how it came about that you are directing the 100th episode, which is the flashback. Which order did these things come in? Did you say, “I’d like to direct the flashback,” and they decided, well let’s move that to the 100th episode. Or did they have you directing the 100th episode, or did you say, “I’d like to direct an episode,” and this is how it worked out in the rotation?
D. Boreanaz: It pretty much worked out in rotation, and at the time, we didn’t necessarily know if it was going to be a flashback. I wasn’t privy to know what the episode was going to be about until about six episodes into the start of the season, so luck of the draw, just wanted to be pushed back as far as the episodes and rotations were concerned. I knew the 100th episode was coming up and I graciously talked to Hart about it and it just so happened to be this is the way it happened. I fell in a good spot.
Q: You’ve directed a couple episodes of TV before, so I was wondering, how does the process change with practice? Does it get easier?
I’m thrilled to let you know that I just got off a conference call interview with Bones star David Boreanaz. He answered questions from many of us who cover the show regularly and gave us a couple of tiny spoilers for the 100th episode.
David talked a bit about how he prepared himself to direct the flashback episode and how much fun it was to have Eric Millegan (he plays Zack Addy) back for the episode.
I got to ask him about his ideal guest stars for the show and about some trivia items, but he also talked about how the show has taken on a sort of “cult” following over the five seasons.
I think you’ll be very pleased to read the entire interview. I’ll have the complete transcript for you either tomorrow after noon or Wednesday morning, so be sure to check back!
Q: T.J. Thyne does it as well and his are very interesting sometimes too.
H. Hanson: Yes, yes, well he’s nuclear powered. He does work half as much as me.
E. Deschanel: He does it. He has many days off.
Q: Hart, I wanted to ask you presumably when you started this five years ago your idea was I have this good source of material and interesting characters. You make a cool sort of crime-based show. When did it sort of turn the corner for you and become – it’s almost more of a character show now I think than it is a show like it used to be.
H. Hanson: My inclination right from the beginning when 20th first came to me and said would you do a forensics show? I said, “No, I’m not your guy to do a forensics show.” They know me. They know where my tastes lie and they said, “No, no, we want your take on it. Which means a character in a humor based take on a forensics show.” I also thought just commercially—from a commercial point of view – that for us to go in just as another forensics show despite the fact that we had the slight difference of it being about bones, it wouldn’t set us apart from the pack. We had to do something where the show was different.
That’s why David and Emily are cast in the show. If we wanted to do a different kind of a show we would not have needed David and Emily. The turn I think, though, if I understand your question correctly, Rick, was that in the second season the promotions department at Fox, at the network, started – do you remember what their motto was –
E. Deschanel: It takes chemistry.
H. Hanson: It takes chemistry, yes.
E. Deschanel: Solving crimes takes chemistry.
H. Hanson: Where they are a separate fiefdom, the promotions people. We have very little effect on what they do. I think that’s a good thing. They just saw where the strengths of the series lie and pushed that and that changed everybody’s mind and all of a sudden everybody was on board for the kind of – the softer take on a forensics show than they had initially been pushing us toward in the first season.
E. Deschanel: Then I think the network saw that and allowed us to do what we wanted to do from the beginning.
H. Hanson: That’s right. That’s right. It became much less of a fight and they went for it.
Q: How do you sort of gauge where to sort of throw in the levity moments when you have a grisly mutilated body and the focus of the case that week?
H. Hanson: Well, we are getting better at knowing what works and what doesn’t work. With the advantage Bones has is that most of the time the remains that Booth and Brennan are standing over – they’re very, very gross but not usually a recognizable human being. You have a bit more luxury with their asides and the humor than you would if it was a recognizable – oh look at that; someone’s mother lying there. That’s a huge reason it works is that – and we actually make the bodies hideous enough that it’s almost funny. It goes over toward the macabre or the grotesque. Then certainly Emily can tell you we cut to what works. They shoot more—David and Emily snap around more than what eventually hits the screen. We just put in the best parts we think, and the parts that work we think, and there’s tons of debate about it in every single episode.
Q: You guys mentioned earlier about being moved around and sort of being in an underdog position in that respect. It’s not the most critically adored show — most critics like it, but it’s not like one of those things that people rave about and stuff like that. Obviously you have a strong following and your audience loves you and you have I think, really great ratings for a Thursday night considering your competition. Can you talk about that a little bit more and sort of how it makes you feel to be sort of ignored but noticed by the right people?
E. Deschanel: Oh, I don’t know. I kind of like it. I think I’m sure it would feel great to be adored by everyone but I don’t think it ever hurts to not feel like anything you do is going to be perfect or something like that. I don’t know, I think it’s good for the ego and the soul not to be adored too much. But it’s nice, we have fans who are so loyal. We’ve built audience over the years, our audience has grown and so many shows they drop.
We have amazing fans who are so loyal to our show, who love it, who – like we’ve discussed before have opinions – very strong opinions about it. I do get feedback on the street from that. We were mentioned by different critics that people like us. I’m happy with the success we’ve had. I don’t feel like I’ve been – that we’re ignored or something like that completely. There are certain shows that people just love.
H. Hanson: We’re not one of the big shiny shows. I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t because most of us are kind of like that. We’re not really big shiny people. I think David is probably the biggest personality on the show. The guy who would love to be the number one show and at the Emmy’s and be appreciated —
E. Deschanel: Right.
H. Hanson: But most of us are kind of like you know, we’re workaday people who are kind of happy with our show and happy that it gets the acclaim it gets.
Q: Emily, I was wondering what you think is the most challenging or difficult part about playing Temperance?
E. Deschanel: Well, I think a couple things. One is the fact that she does guard her emotions but also making – letting you in to see her emotions here and there. Getting glimpses of her feelings inside and how you do that without compromising her character and balancing that. I think over the years we’ve kind of opened her up at different times more and Hart and I have discussed this and one of the things that’s hard for – the biggest challenge for writing is also for acting is balancing the humor and the drama and it’s the thing that I love the most about the show. We can go from one second – change tones from one second to another. That’s also a challenge but yes, I think those are the two most challenging things about the show.
Q: I’ve been a fan since the first episode. I started watching because of David Boreanaz being a big Angel fan. I love this show and all the characters and everything and I want to know if you’d ever gotten any flack from anyone about having – you’ve tackled a couple of what might be – I don’t know – controversial themes like having atheists and bisexual people on the show. I was wondering if you’d ever gotten any flack for doing that.
E. Deschanel: For the atheist, oh yes.
H. Hanson: Yes, yes we catch flack. We’re politically incorrect. We’re kind of proud of that and again the show lends itself to it because we have some characters who are hyper-rational and are not – led by Brennan—and not led by politeness or subtext or political correctness. It’s kind of fun to go there.
The line I’m still amazed that we got on the air was when Brennan says to Booth, “Jesus is not a zombie.”
E. Deschanel: No, no, I said – I equated Jesus to a zombie.
H. Hanson: Because he rose from the dead after three days Booth says — It’s fun for us and yes we get – yes, yes, there is plenty of response.
E. Deschanel: I think though we balance – we won a diversity award and I always think that’s not just for people of different backgrounds or colors of skin I think it’s presenting many different points of view and we’re pretty fair about that. I don’t say we because you’re the one that writes it, but the show presents many different points of view in a – I think a fair way and a humorous way a lot of times. We’ll have debates about things and people say some outrageous things.
People I’m sure were offended by Brennan saying that Jesus was a zombie but it is –it’s done in a humorous way and I think – I also want to say that when you were saying that we have atheists or bisexual characters, I wouldn’t say that just having those characters on is politically incorrect but the way we’ve maybe dealt with it sometimes people are sensitive to it. I like the fact that we’re presenting different – all different people all different walks of life, different points of view, and I like that in the show.
H. Hanson: Some of my favorite episodes are the ones that deal with religion. Like, you know the trans-gendered preacher was one of my favorite shows. I just like that.
E. Deschanel: Me, too.
H. Hanson: Getting Brennan’s hyper-rational point of view on the confusing issues in the world is just fun and then you clash those with Booth’s very humanistic, very emotional approach to life and we have some fun with that.
Q: I think it’s great and apparently Fox does too because how else can Family Guy have both atheist and bisexual characters? I guess you’ve created a trend. I don’t know.
H. Hanson: Here’s where our egos are huge around here. We think that secretly we’ve started a whole bunch of little trends. I’m thinking Big Bang Theory is because of Emily Deschanel.
E. Deschanel: We made nerd cool first.
H. Hanson: Don’t tell anyone we said that though. [laughs]
Q: I have a question about our local guy, John Francis Daley, …and I was wondering if Brennan and Booth are ever going to give him — Sweets– throw him a bone and tell him he’s right for once or if he’s ever going to get to convince them that he’s right about them?
E. Deschanel: It’s so much fun to tell him he’s wrong though.
H. Hanson: Much of the time what we do is have Booth and Brennan tell Sweets he’s wrong and then the audience sees that Sweets is right.
I think we have out there hanging, the book that he has written about Booth and Brennan and he also knows—he knows what’s going on between them. As they get closer to having to contend with what is actually going on between them Sweets is part of that. I would say, yes he will get his – what’s the good form of comeuppance? His due.
E. Deschanel: His day.
H. Hanson: He’ll get his day. The dog will get his day.
Read Part 1 of the Interview
Finally! Here’s the entire conference call conversation we all had on Friday afternoon with Bones star Emily Deschanel & executive producer Hart Hanson. They are both so friendly and funny, it’s always a true pleasure to talk to them.
It’s also fun to hear them nearly correct each other or finish each other’s sentences. It’s a sign that they must really be friends. The Bones cast and production team must all be very close. They allude to it in the things they say. And it shows in the series they create for us.
Here’s what we all discussed:
Q: Now that they’re kind of tossing around the L word this season – or at least in the premiere – and they seem to really be taking stock of their emotions and how they feel about each other is that going to be an ongoing theme for this season?
H. Hanson: Yes, they’re going to be lesbians.
E. Deschanel: That’s exactly really what I thought of when he said that. Oh, really?
H. Hanson: Yes, they have to wrestle with the emotions that were uncorked in the season finale and then I was going to use the wrong verb – and looked at again in the season opener, the season five opener.
E. Deschanel: But also throughout the season this is something that’s kind of touched upon, debated, discussed, well not that much discussed. But it’s definitely a theme that continues through the season.
H. Hanson: Different characters become aware of the dynamic at different times.
Q: What about Zooey guest starring on the show, which frankly at this point I had started to file under things that are never going to happen, do you have any details yet on her character, the dynamic she’ll have with Brennan, the dynamics she’ll have with Booth, and air date?
H. Hanson: We are looking – we are trying to get Zooey in for the Christmas episode which is episode ten. She will play Brennan’s closest blood relative not counting her dad and her brother that she hasn’t met before.
E. Deschanel: That’s also hoping that something doesn’t happen.
We’ve tried this before and then she has a very busy, unpredictable schedule so something could come up and she’s like, “Sorry, I have to take this job somewhere.” Or she has to go on tour or something. I know she’s excited about it. I was e-mailing with her the other day and so hopefully it will work out, but it’s not confirmed. We’re just saying that’s what she would play if she does it.
H. Hanson: We’re just going to keep trying and one day she is going to be on this show.
Q: I’m wondering how Bones is going to cope with Booth’s changes this season?
H. Hanson: Well, you’re going to have to tune in to watch. That’s part of the story. I can tell you in general she’s going to cope the way she copes with everything in life, which is very irrationally and using her big brain instead of her heart.
E. Deschanel: Her big brain instead – yes. Her tiny heart, it’s barely there. I mean I would say that she definitely is somebody who guards her emotions and – exactly, excuse me, Hart is now patting my back.
H. Hanson: We started getting into the details of it. But you know what we said about from the beginning about Brennan is that she doesn’t lack emotions, quite the contrary she’s extremely emotional she just learned early in her life that things were easier for her if she wrapped her emotions very tightly in an armor of intellect and rationalization. That is – that’s what has to be got through for these two people to get closer. That’s the process we’re going through.
Q: And as far as actually getting them together is it just a fear that if they get together their spark will sort of die?
H. Hanson: I wouldn’t say it’s a fear. It’s – we’re just telling this story in the best way we possibly can in the time we’re guessing that we’re allotted. At the same time a series and a relationship takes on its own momentum so we’re trying to serve two masters, tell the story the best way we can while telling that story at the same rate that it seems to be demanding of itself. Oh boy.
Q: How long do you think we have until we know –
H. Hanson: Well, we know we’ve been ordered for two more seasons.
E. Deschanel: I’m thinking ten.
H. Hanson: Are you thinking ten? Emily’s thinking ten.
E. Deschanel: I just do it one episode at a time.
H. Hanson: Yes. So we’re constantly adjusting what happens when in the best way we can. We don’t want to leave – we don’t want to jump any story and we don’t want to leave any story behind. We just want to tell this story in the best possible way we can, like a series of novels. Each season is like another novel in a series of novels.
Q: Regarding the relationships, not just Booth and Brennan, but Angela and Hodgins, what kind of feedback do you get from viewers? Are they impatient or do they seem to trust you – that you’ll do right by them and the characters before it’s all said and done?
H. Hanson: We get every iteration of what you just said. There is a lot of passion in both directions. I would say nobody is patient. Everybody has a lot to say on it which is all good for us. It’s just good.
E. Deschanel: People always want to know when are Booth and Brennan going to get together, if somebody stops me in the street or something like that. It’s always a question that’s hard to answer.
H. Hanson: I get hollered at on behalf of every single character all the time including Goodman from season one, played by Jonathan Adams.
People still will come up and say, “When is Goodman coming back?” And Cullen, Booth’s boss for a while. We have a very passionate, very vocal audience base. Boy, are they not shy. They holler at me all the time. I’m glad they don’t holler at you.
It’s a great problem to have. The – silence and apathy would be a disaster. I’d rather be hollered at all the time than hear nothing.
E. Deschanel: Agreed.
H. Hanson: I’d rather be hollered at “Oh, you’re a genius, we love you, please keep going.” But that doesn’t happen. [kidding]
Q: Last season Brennan asked Booth to be the father of her child. Now that his feelings have changed for her, will we maybe readdress that question – is any baby stuff coming up?
H. Hanson: Without a doubt we will address that question.
E. Deschanel: Yes, I think you see Brennan with all ready for Booth to be the father of her child but then when all these complications happen it’s – she puts it away for a while.
H. Hanson: I always thought it was telling and a good source of the story that when the possibility of Booth being the father of her child receded somewhat for various reasons, her interest in having a baby also receded. I think that’s just one of the things that’s very telling in that relationship. She doesn’t just want to have a baby, she does not know this, but she wants to have Booth’s baby.
Q: Have you guys met David’s new baby? And how is the family doing?
E. Deschanel: I’ve seen many, many pictures of the baby. She is adorable. No, I mean she’s very young, so it would be inappropriate to bring her to the set. We’re kind of giving them time to bring her out into the world. I look forward to meeting her, she’s adorable and I know they’re just overjoyed with this new addition to their family.
H. Hanson: Certainly David has settled down quite a bit. He’s been a nervous wreck for the month preceding –even longer – the months preceding the baby’s arrival. He’s a whole different guy now. He’s happy and very, very pleased.
Q: You guys are in the same time slot you were in last year. No one is threatening to move you guys to Friday, you know you’re coming back next season already. Does stability feel different?
H. Hanson: Yes. I – how do I say this nicely? I actually – for the first time in many seasons believe the network when they – Peter Rice and Kevin Reilly said we are going to keep you on at 8 p.m., Preston Beckman on Thursdays. I’ve been screaming about that since the beginning because for those who notice such things any time we’ve been in a single time slot for more than two or three episodes our numbers go way up, people find us. Then we move again. Despite the fact that it’s a tough time slot, 8 p.m. on Thursdays, I personally am more pleased for us to be in one place with stability.
As you said every year they’ve said we’re going to move you to Fridays in the winter and that’s always just painful even though everyone is winking when they say it. Yes, stability feels better. I feel like our promos are sharper and more prevalent this year. We have a good feeling about Bones this season from the network.
E. Deschanel: I don’t want to take anything for granted and I think it’s something that we’re always trying to work as hard and harder than we did the last year and it’s – I don’t think because of what we’ve been through none of us take anything for granted. It’s nice that they’ve made that gesture that they’ve kept us in the same time slot, that they’ve picked us up for two seasons. That’s really nice.
H. Hanson: It doesn’t change our work.
E. Deschanel: It doesn’t change our work.
Q: Following up on that though, from this position of stability can you look back at the past few years and see advantages to sort of the chip on the shoulder attitude that you guys have had for a couple of seasons?
H. Hanson: I cannot. As Emily said we tucked in right from the beginning, right from the pilot. It’s a very good company, an excellent crew. It’s not like it kept us sharp or anything what it did was kind of inure us to pain – I would much rather have been where we are now back in the beginning in one slot. It’s sort of the CBS mode of doing things is to stick a show into its slot and let it find an audience. I think that would have served us well.
E. Deschanel: I think – I like the fact though that we’ve never – we’ve always kind of been like the show that just surprises everyone that they move us around all the time and yet our audience will grow and I love the fact that that’s the way our show is and that we weren’t some crazy hit right off the bat. I think we’ve been able to grow naturally and our audience grows while we’re growing. I like that element.
H. Hanson: Maybe you’re right. Maybe it did kind of bring us together like the Little Engine That Could.
E. Deschanel: Right. Our egos would have probably gotten huge if we were in one place and people watched our show from the beginning.
Q: Can you please extend everyone’s congratulations to David and his family for the new baby? Everybody is excited for them.
E. Deschanel: Aw, we will.
H. Hanson: I will do that. People have been twittering that and certainly the response on Searching Bones has been like that so I’ll keep – I’ll tell him you said that.
Q: A lot of people have noticed is that David isn’t dressing the same way in the first episode. He doesn’t have his “cocky” belt buckle and he’s wearing a black tie and socks –what’s up with that? Is that part of the brain tumor thing?
H. Hanson: It is. It is. He’s got to come back in his own inimitable way over a little bit of time.
Q: Do you know if the crossover with Lie to Me is going to still be happening or is that just rumor?
H. Hanson: It’s slightly better than rumor and it’s much less than a fact. I think the fact that here we are going into our fifth season, we’re a machine in a way in terms of generating stories and getting scripts out and Lie to Me is still – they’ve got a new show runner. It’s a lot harder for them. In a way we’re waiting to see if Lie to Me is able to do that. If they are then we have a few ideas. If they are not, we really understand. Retooling a series is like doing the first season again and really those guys have to have their heads down just trying to make their new season and establish their new series. Their first priority is not going to be doing a crossover with us.
Q: Oh, but Lightman would be perfect person to see that Booth was not being honest about his feelings. That would be perfect.
H. Hanson: I’m writing that down. [laughs]
Q: Emily, Hart’s very active on Twitter, will you ever become more active there too?
E. Deschanel: I don’t know. My sister joined recently. It’s one of those things I’m so busy with everything I don’t do Facebook, I don’t do MySpace, FaceMates, I don’t know. I don’t do any of that. It’s just like I have a hard time keeping up with phone calls, e-mails, and texts already so I might consider it in the future. Right now I don’t know, I don’t know why anyone – I don’t know what anyone would care what I’m doing and I’m kind of like what people might care about I don’t really necessarily want to share. So it’s –
H. Hanson: It’s a bit onerous, too I’ve got to tell you— I sit in front of my computer all day, so for me to switch over and do one little thing two or three times a day is nothing.
H. Hanson: You don’t have that. It’s onerous. I did it because Stephen Fry talked me into it.
Continue Reading Part 2
Q: I wanted to ask you a little bit about Zack coming back for the finale and what was it like to have Eric back on the set and work with him because he was back, I think, only once before this season?
E. Deschanel: It’s wonderful to have him back. I enjoy his company so much. I became friends with him over the years, like I have with most of the cast, and it was really hard to not have him around all the time. But that said, when he came back for the finale, it was as if no time had past. He just walked, and it was great to act with him again and hang out with him on set. It was a breath of fresh air. I was really happy that we have him back for this season finale, and it’s very fitting because we have so many of the people that have been on the show are back in the finale. So many people – I don’t know if there’s one person. You know, there’s not many. There are some, but most of the people who are on our show have been on the show before in that episode, and I love that about that episode. They’re familiar faces.
Q: And this season, you’ve had the device of having recurring people rotating through in Zack’s position, kind of that rotating. What’s that been like, even just as a device for you to have a new actor that you’re kind of working with not always consistently? What’s that been like on the set?
E. Deschanel: I’ve been enjoying it. As hard as it is to see Eric and Zack go, I have been enjoying the way that they’ve done it because I love that they have a new dynamic every week. Of course, we rotate, so we’ll see the same ones here and there, but I’ve been enjoying that. You know, you have a character, the wacky character of Daisy who wants to be like Brennan, and is so kind of bubbly and kooky, that I just love. And then you have the character of Fischer who is kind of suicidal, and just negative about life in general and just can’t see the bright side of things. Then you have Vincent Nigel-Murray, the English – kind of the neurotic English young grad student who likes to state facts when he gets nervous. You know, it’s a great, different dynamic. It’s great to have all these different dynamics every week and to play against them, so I’ve been enjoying that, as sad as it’s been to not have Eric and the character Zack around. I’ve been enjoying that.
Q: Do you think we’ll see a resolution to that? Will Bones finally hire someone permanently, or do you see this kind of as a device that goes into next season?
E. Deschanel: I think, eventually, but I think they’re enjoying this right now, and it probably will continue to next season, as far as I know, because I think they’ve been enjoying it so much, and having the different, you know, rotating the different people, and it’s been working well, and people have been enjoying it. So I think they’ll continue that. But I think there’s a limit to how long you can do that, I suppose, so we’ll see. I don’t know where that limit lies, but I guess we’ll find out.
Q: What can you tell me about the Stewie Griffin guest appearance? Will it look the way we think it’s going to look? Is it going to be like a Mary Poppins kind of thing?
E. Deschanel: A little bit. A little bit, but it’s like so much more modern and cooler. Not that I don’t love Mary Poppins, but yes. I mean, I thought it was such a brilliant crossover kind of episode, and that episode should be – I mean, I haven’t seen the end result, but the script was so funny and moving and, you know, it’s kind of got emotion and drama. Basically, in that episode, I ask Booth to father a child with me, and he starts to hallucinate and sees Stewie from Family Guy.
The way it’s done has to be believable. I mean, you know, if you’re going to see a hallucination, it might as well – it could be a cartoon as easily as it could be another human being, so I think it’s done very well. I thought it was great. It’s a funny show, Family Guy, so I was excited to have Stewie join our cast for an episode.
Q: Yes, I thought it was interesting because usually the crossovers go the other way. You guys would be animated on…
E. Deschanel: Yes, and we haven’t done that, so it’s nice to do it this way. I thought it was really clever of the writers to think of that and really think outside the box. I mean, really think outside the box with casting and storylines, but it’s done in a very, for lack of a better word, realistic way, and I think that it plays in the world of our show. We have a kind of goofy, crazy side, and I think that works with that. We’ll see, though. I haven’t seen the final episode.
Q: I can’t wait to check it out. Now with her request that Booth father her child, how do you see that panning out, best case scenario? Over time, will a serial killer grab the kid and hold him hostage or her hostage, or something like that?
E. Deschanel: Yes. No, that’s absolutely possible. I think that that is definitely a possibility. I think that, you know, just seeing Booth and Brennan interact with a baby in the future, I mean, we did this one baby episode last season, The Baby in the Bough, and you saw Brennan interact with a child. She changed a lot during that episode. At first holding the baby at arm’s length, you know, just trying to give the kid away as much as possible. And then by the end, she really, he kind of grew on her, and she was really sad to see him leave. You know, you saw that side of Brennan, so we’ll see.
I don’t think Brennan, if there’s such a thing as a perfect mother, I don’t know if Brennan is anywhere near that, but who is, I guess. That’s the beauty of the show is you see hopefully somewhat honest, real characters interacting and things that people can relate to, and that’s something a lot of people can relate to, being a parent.
Q: I wanted to ask you a little bit about something you were talking about earlier, and Brennan’s sort of inability to relate the way regular people do. Do you think after this long playing the character that she almost kind of just doesn’t – refuses to kind of learn that, or she just really can’t see the world in that way?
E. Deschanel: No, I would say if you look at some of the episodes, even especially this season, we have an episode, the one that David directed. Now what is that called? I forget. I’ll think of it in a moment. Sorry, The Bones that Foam. You see Brennan asks Sweets, the character that John Francis Daley plays, who is the shrink. She asks him to help her interact with humans, and she admits that she’s not good at it, so she asks him to help her, and he tries to teach her what different expressions look like: what happiness looks like, what sadness. And she’s just, you know, she kind of fails at it.
It’s not a lack of trying that gets her here, and I think that if you actually look from the beginning of season one to now, she has warmed up a lot, and I know that sounds crazy because she still has a long way to go, but she has definitely changed. And I think that she’s opened up with her emotions. She’s learned to interact with people a little bit.
I’ve talked to some psychologists who work with people with Asperger syndrome and basically Brennan kind of has some form of Asperger’s in a way because she’s a genius, but has a hard time interacting in social situations. People have success, you know, in moving forward helping people with Asperger’s interact with people in social situations. It’s a long way to answer your question, but basically Brennan has not given up. Brennan is really trying to learn how to relate to people and to open up her emotions and become more sympathetic and all of that. I mean, I think that that’s one of the things that I love about the character is that she is trying to be better, trying to grow and learn, and that’s one reason why I love playing the character.
Q: Completely switching gears, can you talk a little bit about how Mötley Crüe is involved in the season finale?
E. Deschanel: Well, it turns out that Booth and Brennan have a little connection to Mötley Crüe. I guess they go back, go way back, and Mötley Crüe ends up actually playing in the lab, which was totally crazy…kind of transformed the lab so they could play there. I don’t want to reveal too much about the episode to say how that happens, but basically it turns out that Booth and Brennan have known Mötley Crüe randomly.
Yes, and that was pretty crazy to have Mötley Crüe on set. There was pyrotechnics and smoke and everything. They didn’t understand continuity because they played once, and Tommy Lee had his shirt off, and then he had his shirt on again. You know how you have to – you know, you shoot it many times, but then he put his shirt on. I, of course, notice that, and I had to tell everyone, but I’m going to notice when a man has his shirt off. I’m just kidding. But I do have attention to detail, just like Brennan. But, yes, it was kind of crazy to have them on set, but it was pretty wild.
So there you have it. That was the full conversation Emily had with all of us on the conference call interview. Now all we have to do is wait to see how terrific the finale is going to be….that’s the tough part: waiting!
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.