This was an entertaining conference call. Unfortunately,
I did not get to ask a question. They only had 35 minutes, and she likes
to talk - a lot! It was very interesting, anyway, though! You will see
below...
Final Transcript
FBC PUBLICITY: The Bones Conference with Emily Deschanel
December 3, 2010/1:00 p.m. EST
SPEAKERS
Kim Kurland – FBC Publicity
Emily Deschanel – Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan, Bones
PRESENTATION
Moderator: I would now like to turn the conference over
to Kim Kurland.
K. Kurland: Hi, everybody. I just wanted to thank you for taking
part in this call today with Emily. She is going to be taking questions
about next week’s episode, “The Doctor in the Photo,” which is sort of a
unique episode for us.
Moderator: Our first question will come from the line of Megan Ward with
TVisMyPacifier.com.
M. Ward: In next week’s episode, Brennan feels a strong connection to the
victim of the case. How was it play Brennan in such a vulnerable light?
E. Deschanel: It’s hard because you have to go through all the emotions
that she’s going through. At the same time, it’s refreshing because it’s
a very different episode than most episodes of the show. It’s kind of
strange. It’s a different episode. I think it was one of my favorite
scripts. I haven’t seen the actual final cut yet, but hopefully, it’ll
be one of my favorite episodes.
It’s just very unique. It’s very personal to Brennan. She is facing her
own mortality and also looking at her life and seeing what she would be
leaving behind when she dies. You don’t see that side of Brennan very
often. She becomes very vulnerable trying to solve this case, which she
believes to be— If people haven’t seen or don’t know basically, there is
a woman who is killed. She’s a doctor. When they started listing the
different qualities of this person, Brennan thinks is sounds very
familiar, whether they’re physical or personal qualities. Then, even
looking at the photograph of the person who died, it looks like Brennan
when she looks at it. It’s from Brennan’s perspective, this episode.
It’s very interesting, but kind of terrifying for Brennan and confusing.
She’s visited by a night watchman who we’re not even sure if he exists
or not in real life. Enrico Colantoni played that part, who I’ve always
loved as an actor, so it was a lot of fun to work with him.
Yes, it was definitely hard to go through that because I was also in
every single scene of this episode. There were absolutely no breaks
whatsoever.
M. Ward: Speaking of Brennan as a whole, does it ever get exhausting
playing Brennan, because she’s so serious and factual? You, yourself
always come across as so lively. Is it hard to be in that state of mind
a lot?
E. Deschanel: Yes and no. I think that Brennan has (a) become a lot more
open over the years and you get to see her kind of dorky, quirky side at
times, which is fun. I hang on to those moments and try to incorporate
things like that in every episode. My favorite things about people in
general is that they have contradictions. Brennan is no exception to
that rule. I love exploring the contradictions of her character and all
of that.
No, I’m an actor, too. So playing a character who’s very different from
myself is one of the best things to happen to me, especially in a
television series. So many times people are hired to play something very
close to who they are in real life. It’s a wonderful opportunity to play
this character who is very different. I can’t say that I don’t possess
some qualities that are similar or that sometimes I don’t remind myself
of her, when I behave like a real, I don’t know, nerd—I say that in the
most affectionate way—but, I’m very different. So, I love the fact that
I am different from the character. But, that’s true sometimes,
especially when you’re doing certain episodes. You come home and you
take it home a little bit with you.
I have tried to make boundaries for myself where I leave work at work.
If I have lines to learn, I do all my acting work on the weekends and
then I learn my lines the day before. If there’s any work that needs to
be done before the next day, I do it at work. I don’t leave work until
I’ve finished that. I don’t like to take work home with me. That means
staying late even after working 15 hours. I’ll stay late an hour or two
just to make sure I get everything right. I try to set those boundaries
so I don’t take things home, but that said, it does leak into your
personal life sometimes. I think that was a really long answer to your
question, but maybe I answered like ten more.
Moderator: You do have a question from the line of Sandra Gonzales with
Entertainment Weekly.
S. Gonzales: In next week’s episode, I think some of us have had a chance
to see it, thanks to Fox. You do a fantastic scene with David in the car
when you’re talking to him. It’s a really somber moment. Can you tell us
a little bit about what it was like filming that emotionally charged
scene? That actually had me crying, too.
E. Deschanel: Oh, that’s—I shouldn’t say, “That’s nice. I’m glad you
cried,” but I guess we always want to affect people emotionally. Yes, it
was one of those scenes that you know is there. You prepare for it
acting-wise. You know it’s coming up, but it’s one of those things that
says that you’re crying in the scene. Then, you’re like, “It’s okay if I
don’t cry. I don’t have to cry,” but then walking in, everyone’s
expecting that. So, there’s a lot of pressure of that.
It’s one of those things as an actor that you kind of dread those scenes
in a way, because you’d rather it just not be written in and see if your
emotions go to that place or not. But, at the same time, it’s good to
have those markers as an actor to know where your breaking points are
for the character, and where in the story is the low point. I’m going
backwards.
But, basically the scene, Brennan has to face her own life because this
woman has died, she doesn’t have much of a personal life. The only
people who listed her missing are her people at work. She doesn’t have
friends. She had some kind of romance with a guy. Nothing ever happened.
No one really missed her. I think isn’t that almost every human’s worst
fears, dying and no one misses you and no one notices. So, this affects
Brennan greatly. She starts relating to the character, believing that
it’s her. She starts seeing her own life and seeing that she made a
mistake when she said no to Booth last year. She goes out on a limb and
says to Booth, “I’m here.”
I don’t know how much people want to reveal before the episode airs and
I don’t know how much I should reveal, but I know that some of you guys
must have seen it. It forces Brennan into a place where she is bold and
kind of aware of her feelings in a way that she hasn’t been before. It
takes a huge, very strange experience for her to become aware of her
feelings. Hart and I—Hart’s the creator of the show—we’ve always talked
about how Brennan may have these feelings for Booth, but she’s the last
person to know in a way. Here, it takes a very strange experience for
her to face her feelings and to see them. I hope that answers the
question.
S. Gonzales: Yes, definitely. It goes to that really somber place, but do
you feel that sort of ends on a positive note on this? That’s sort of
the vibe that I got from the episode.
E. Deschanel: I think so. I think so. I think that she realizes that she
isn’t that woman. She has friends. She has people who love her and she
loves. She’s not as extreme as this person, but it’s always good to have
those reminders in life to see Who am I?. What am I doing with my life?
Am I working my whole life away? Am I not spending time with people that
are important? Am I not taking a chance on something that I’m going to
regret on my deathbed? If I die tomorrow, would I be happy with my life
as it is right now?
I think one thing that I’ll say doing the show, being around death all
the time or fake death or whatever—in Brennan’s … real death—you are
aware of your mortality. You can’t help thinking about that. I think
that as a result you have to become more bold in your life and take
chances. I think that’s what Brennan is doing.
I think that that’s not a bad thing. I think that’s a wonderful thing to
make the most of our lives while we have it. We’re not here for that
long. I think that Brennan took that chance. Whether it worked out or
not doesn’t matter as much as the fact that she did take that chance. I
think that it is a happy ending in that way, even if it is hard and sad,
but life is hard and sad at times. The whole point is we get through
those times. I think that she still has all those people in her life and
she still has all those friends and people who care about her. That’s
what really matters.
Moderator: Next, we’ll go to the line of Matt Mitovitch with
Movieline.com
M. Mitovitch: Do you think we’ll be left with any lasting … change for
Temperance after this episode or is she kind of like, “That’s that,”
after she makes that pitch to Booth?
E. Deschanel: I think you’ll see both. Honestly, Brennan’s the kind of
person that the closer she gets to opening up her feelings, the more
closed off she becomes. After that, I think she becomes even more closed
off in a way. So, there is a reaction, but it may not be the reaction
people want from Brennan. She rarely is predictable in that way. I think
you’ll see Brennan becoming more protected than she has been even. Then
at times, she’s open. I think it affects her, but I think it affects her
in many different kind of opposing ways and you’ll see in episodes to
come. We’re still reading and shooting episodes that are coming up, so
we’re only few ahead of this one.
M. Mitovitch: The … and Hannah’s … dynamic, that’s going to continue on.
Might it get even more serious?
E. Deschanel: Say that again. The whole, what dynamic did you say?
M. Mitovitch: Between Hannah and Booth, might that get more serious as it
goes on?
E. Deschanel: Yes, it actually does get more serious. That creates the
whole situation for all of them. One thing I must say I love about this
dynamic between Hannah and Booth and Brennan is that— Hannah is not a
bad person. So many times, you see a character come in as a love
triangle. The two leads, people want them to get together. I think that
you have to like her and—that’s not an order, but I feel like she’s a
nice person—Brennan certainly likes her and respects her.
I think there’s a lot of internal conflicts rather than there being
external conflicts. There’s internal conflicts in Brennan because she
loves Booth. She wants to be with Booth. She’s realizing this, but
because she loves Booth, she wants him to be happy. Booth is happy with
Hannah now and that’s really hard to see. But, then she also wants him
to be happy because she loves him and she cares for him. Then, she also
sees that Hannah is a wonderful, smart, tough, cool, beautiful woman.
You can’t really blame Booth for falling in love with her. There’s all
these conflicting emotions just within one character alone. I just love
that.
I think it’s great to have conflict between characters, within
characters where no one’s intending bad things. It’s just life. It’s
just what happens. I’ve seen this happen in life so many times, where
there’s feelings for people and they don’t feel the same way, but then
you can’t blame them. I think it’s a wonderful kind of push and pull and
dance, if you will, between the characters. I really like that dynamic,
but it does get more serious with Hannah.
Moderator: We’ll go to the line of Marissa Roffman with
GiveMeMyRemote.com.
M. Roffman: Obviously, you did mention the Hannah and Brennan friendship,
but as of now, Hannah isn’t really aware of what went down with Booth
and Brennan last season. Is that going to complicate the friendship when
she finds out?
E. Deschanel: Say that again. Is what—? Sorry, sometimes, it’s hard for
me to hear this.
M. Roffman: Is the history of Booth and Brennan going to complicate the
Brennan and Hannah friendship going forward?
E. Deschanel: Yes, it will. Yes, it will. It’s going to be revealed in
some way to Hannah about the situation with Brennan and Booth and
Brennan revealing her feelings. It definitely creates a situation with
Hannah and Brennan in their friendship. It’s an interesting dynamic
between these two that you don’t see very often, but it does definitely
create some issues and conflict and things like that.
M. Roffman: Are we going to see Booth start to have some doubts about his
decision to turn Brennan down at all? Or, is he going to be steadfast,
and, “Nope, I made the right decision. Hannah is it.”
E. Deschanel: That’s hard for me to say. Let’s just say, so far I haven’t
seen that yet, but I can’t say it won’t come. I mean we’re only a few
ahead of this episode. I don’t want to speak for another character in a
way, too, in what he’s feeling while he’s doing scenes, but in terms of
the actual script, I have not seen that yet.
Moderator: Next, we’ll go to the line of Hal Boedeker with Orlando
Sentinel.
H. Boedeker: I wanted to ask about the show’s run. I mean six years is a
really good run. Why do you think the show is doing so well? It seems to
be—the ratings last night were very good. I also wanted to ask about
Kathy Reichs and the foundation that she gave the series.
E. Deschanel: Ask about Kathy Reichs and what is the specific question—?
H. Boedeker: The foundation she gave the series. The start she gave it …
her career writing.
E. Deschanel: Wow, it’s hard for me to say what the success is and it’s
hard for me to be objective about something that I’m absolutely in the
middle of right now. But, when people come up to me and are fans of the
show, a lot of people say, “It’s the only show that I can watch with my
husband,” or, “It’s the only show I can watch with my family, or my
wife.” Everyone likes different things. I think that one of the
qualities of our show that may have been a detriment at times and may
have not made us the huge hit right away that some other shows have been
is the fact that it’s so many different things.
I mean we have science, we have forensics, we are solving crimes, but we
also have humor. We have character relationships, which kind of are the
backbone of the whole show. Then, you have episodes that are more
poignant and more serious and some that are more action filled. You kind
of never know what you’re going to get. There are certain things that
you know they will have: the relationships, there’s those dynamics,
great characters, witty dialog, and stuff like that. But, there are so
many elements that different people are drawn to for different reasons.
As for Kathy Reichs, she has a huge, huge following of people reading
her books. We had, from the beginning, I think it really helped us to
(a) have that, and also have David Boreanaz, his incredible success. So
many people are such huge fans of his from Angel and Buffy the Vampire
Slayer. So we had some fan base going in. That may be why we’ve had such
loyal fans, certainly, from the beginning who followed us from so many
different time slots.
Absolutely, Kathy Reichs is a very successful writer. So many people
love her books; love the Temperance Brennan books. I think that it was
hard at the beginning because we had to explain that this Temperance
Brennan is actually based on Kathy Reichs, not Temperance Brennan in the
book. It’s only loosely based on Kathy Reichs. But, at the same time, if
you’re a fan of the books, I think you’ll be a fan of the show because
this Temperance Brennan is a different Temperance Brennan, but there are
definitely similarities from the book to the show. There are many—
H. Boedeker: Can I ask you a quick follow-up? How long do you want to go
with this show? Do you feel like you’re peaking?
E. Deschanel: It’s such a good question. It’s so hard to know. I wish I
had that perspective. It’s something that I don’t really have control
over. At this point, I have a contract for eight seasons, so I can’t
say, “I’m done now.” I’d rather not say, “We’re peaking, I’m done,”
because I’d be in trouble for breaking my contract. I’d rather just
think that we’re going for at least eight seasons or something.
No, it’s something as an actor that you only have a certain amount of
control over. You look at certain shows that last for ten years and that
is just incredible. I just can’t believe we’ve been here for six
seasons. Not because I don’t believe in the show and I don’t love it and
I don’ think it deserves a huge audience. It’s just that there’s so many
wonderful shows that get cancelled in the first season. There’s so many
wonderful shows that don’t get picked up in the first place. I know I’m
so lucky to be doing the show; the show that I love doing and a
character that I have such affection for. I’m just incredibly lucky.
But, I love doing this show. When I started, I thought, “Three seasons.
That’s the most. That’s such a long time. I’ll be exhausted by then. I
will be done and then I can move on to other things.” Then, it keeps
going, but I’ve never thought, “Oh, we got picked up for another season.
Oh, darn it. I wish that hadn’t happened.” I’ve always been excited when
we’ve been picked up for another season. I think that will continue, but
who knows. Maybe, talk to me—we’ll go for 11 years and I might be like,
“I’m done with the show. I’m sick of it,” but right now I’m still
enjoying myself and loving it, and just counting my lucky stars.
Moderator: Next, we’ll go to the line of Lara Martin with Digital Spy.
L. Martin: I was wondering with this case coming up in next week’s
episode, is it going to affect how she feels about her career at all or
how much time she dedicates to work? Because I know, she was
disillusioned before, does that come up again?
E. Deschanel: Yes. It does come up a bit, but not as much anymore. I
think Brennan realized when she was away from it how much she missed it.
I think that’s a small factor, but not a big one. I think that she
realizes that she’s good at this. She enjoys this. She loves solving
crimes and she loves doing it with the team that she does it with. She
loves seeing the results of her work immediately; well, not always
immediately, but you what I mean.
You can actually affect the world when you are solving crimes as opposed
to identifying ancient remains. Sure, it can impact science in such a
huge way. But right now, you’re solving a crime. You’re putting people
behind bars. You’re stopping new crimes from happening. You are bringing
some tiny bit of peace to family members. I think that she likes being
that person. I think she recognized that when she was away from it.
L. Martin: I know that you said earlier that you’re only a few episodes
ahead of yourself in terms of the production. But, are there teasers
that you can give us about any of the cases that are coming up?
E. Deschanel: Sure. We have an episode about daredevil BMX bikers. We
have an episode about people who are polygamists – one polygamist who
has many wives. So, you have an episode like that which seems to be very
popular right now with different reality shows, the Big Love show, and
all of that. That’s interesting.
What did we just shoot? Sometimes I have no memory for a while, just
before. We have one with the gravedigger, which is action packed.
There’s a sniper loose in DC. David directs an episode about that, which
is great, great fun, action packed episode. Just love that episode.
That’s a really exciting one. Then, we have the BMX biker daredevil
episode, which I’m just starting reading right now. Then there’s the one
we’re doing now about …. Those are some ideas of a few ahead. We’re just
like a few ahead.
Moderator: We’ll go to the line of Lance Carter with Daily Actor.
L. Carter: Now, playing this character for as long as you have, does
anything about her still surprise you?
E. Deschanel: Yes, yes. I think I was surprised as she started to open up
more. What I just love, this was a couple of seasons ago, but there was
a scene where she asked Sweets to help her learn facial expressions
because she’s kind almost on the autistic spectrum, almost Aspbergery—not
quite, but has some characteristics that fit into that. She doesn’t
really understand how to read peoples’ emotions. I just love that she
recognized that she didn’t know how to do this and she wanted to get
better at it. I just love that.
I loved the Jersey Shore episode. That surprised me just how much
Brennan had studied this culture of the guidos and how seriously she
took it. In a way, things surprise me and in a way, things don’t.
Because of course, she studied these guidos. Of course, she takes it
very seriously as an anthropological study. She’s going to throw a guy
the crab, doing a body building pose to scare someone away. It’s a lot
of fun.
Yes and no I guess is my answer. I love so many of her qualities,
especially when she’s trying to grow as a person and open up.
L. Carter: What’s your advice to actors, somebody just trying to get a
start in the business?
E. Deschanel: Study acting. Do theater. Play as different kind of
characters as you possibly can. Stretch yourself as far as you can. Make
it about the acting. So many people get caught up in the looks and the
agents and the business of it all and who you know and all of that. I
guess that’s valid, but if you concentrate on the acting, I can’t say
that everything will fall into place, because I know so many incredibly
talented actors who are struggling. I heard somebody say once it’s 90%
perseverance and like 5% talent. I think that’s so true, but I think if
you are perseverant and if you— Concentrate on the acting, that’s all
I’ll say. Concentrate on the acting.
Moderator: Our last question will come from the line of Fred Topel with
Screen Junkies.
F. Topel: After this emotional episode, how nice was it to go back to
more case of the week? Was it a relief?
E. Deschanel: Absolutely, absolutely. It took a lot out of me. It was an
exhausting episode, physically, outside in the rain at night, all of
that stuff. I’m not saying poor me in any way, but I’m just saying it
was a relief to come back to doing these episodes about …, things like
that. Definitely a relief, definitely a relief.
I didn’t mention this. We have an episode coming up, which I was
supposed to direct. It was reported that I was supposed to direct an
episode about a wedding planner, which I’m excited to read. But, I’m not
directing that episode after all because it turned out they’d have to
write me out of the episode before it so much and the episode that I was
directing so much that I’d be so light in the episode that it turned out
that we’re now after Idol and we didn’t know that. It’s just a wonderful
opportunity to be after American Idol.
To do that episode, they were worried if we had two episodes very soon
early on after Idol in which I’m just not very present in the show that
it might take away. I don’t know if that’s true, but they were. Maybe
the audience would rather me not be in the show that much, but Hart was
concerned about it. So, we are talking about moving me to the end of the
season. Sorry, that was one thing I just wanted to clear up, because it
was reported that I am directing this episode and I am not directing
that episode.
But, yes, it’s nice to do a more—fluffy may not be exactly the right
word for it, but it’s on the fluffier side of things, doing an episode
about a wedding planner, things like that.
F. Topel: It was interesting to hear you talk about the work you do that
you don’t want to take home. What sort of extra work did you have to do
on this episode?
E. Deschanel: You just spend more time working on it. I work with my
acting teacher on it, but there’s just a lot of work you do on your own.
I hate talking about the acting process, but it’s a lot of creating
thoughts and memories and all of that. So, there’s a lot of work to do.
When it’s such a heavy episode, you’re facing such serious emotions as a
character. It’s just more demanding. It takes longer to do. You’re just
working harder on that. It’s stuff I love. I love doing that. I like the
challenge. I don’t think I could do it every single episode. I don’t
know, maybe I’d get used to it, but it demands lot.
F. Topel: Does directing demand even more from you then?
E. Deschanel: Oh, yes, absolutely. When we postponed the directing, so
much has happened in my life recently. There’s a lot going on, so in a
way I was disappointed that we had to move the directing episode but I
was also relieved. Because I am going to be able to take some time in
the Christmas break to (a) I’ll have more time to spend doing things I
want to do, spending more time with family and stuff, not having to work
as much because I’d be preparing while I was on Christmas break if I was
directing the next episode.
So, since I’m not doing that, I can spend time preparing, but in advance
whatever I can do about directing, figuring out, anticipating things
that I’ll want and need for the episode. Yes, absolutely. I probably
won’t know entirely what it will demand of me physically and mentally
and everything, until I get to the point where I am actually directing.
I think it’s one of those kinds of jobs that you just can’t completely
prepare for until you’re in it, and certainly, until you actually get
the script for the actual episode. I’m sure it’s going to demand a lot
of me. I’m excited for that challenge, but I’m also happy to push it a
little longer because there’s a lot going on right now.
K. Kurland: All right, Lori, I think we have to wrap it up there.
E. Deschanel: Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to talk
with me today. I hope I answered questions well for you. Have a great
weekend.
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for
today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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