Bones Interview With Emily Deschanel And Series Creator Hart Hanson

Bones has consistently proven itself over five seasons now, and it has a devoted fanbase. Much of its success comes from the apparent chemistry, not just between its stars, but of everyone involved.

Though it battles it out among a plethora of crime-related shows, the fun and light-hearted moments blend cleverly with the meatier aspects of the show, and the result remains a strong, fresh effort even moving toward a sixth season.

Series creator Hart Hanson and co-star Emily Deschanel took part in a conference call interview recently, and it was an exceptionally fun ride. Though you are probably not exactly sure what to expect form Hanson, the dynamic of these two chatting up their show isn't surprising.

Enjoy.

The two upcoming episodes left for the season finale, what kind of impact are they going to have between Booth and Bones?

Hart We had an interesting dilemma this year, which we sort of had two big finale type shows this year, because we wanted the 100th episode to ring on the Booth and Brennan relationship. And then low and behold, the season finale has to live up to that or at least be as interesting we hope as the 100th. And I think we were fairly successful in getting an interesting episode out of our 100th episode.

So I guess, Emily, you have to interrupt me if I start to blab too much, but it's like 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 Yes. I think the way you said it is accurate, I'll just say that. This is Emily talking.

Hart Yes, because our voices are identical.

Emily It's oblique enough, yes. Are you asking me or are you asking Lisa? I don't know. We can't give too much away you see.

Hart Yes.

Emily But I think what happens in both of those episodes are as impactful for their relationship, or the season finale, what happens in the season finale is as impactful for their relationship as the 100th episode was I think. And I think there's a lot to live up to after the 100th episode I think. And I think that Hart did a really good job writing the script and I was not to answer this question, but I'm just going to keep on talking.

Hart You're good at it.

Now that it's been quite a few seasons of the show and it's in season 6 coming up, how do you see the evolution of Brennan?

Emily I think that 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 feeling and where they're coming from. I think that's one reason why she chose science as a field and I think she's put up a lot of walls because of being abandoned as a child, and what she went through believing their parents were dead or missing, as well as her brother leaving her. I think that the walls are starting to come down.

And you'll even see at the end of the season, her questioning her field, solving murders. It's a pretty huge thing that she's even thinking about that, because I think it's something that she's chosen to escape into. I think it's mainly from her relationship with Booth, who has opened her up and encouraged her to be more sociable, have a - I guess - a higher social intelligence ... which is fun to discover this character learning how to interact with people and I think she's gotten better. She's still the same person, she still has difficulty, but she's making improvements for sure.

We have to talk about the season finale, because the last two years you have had controversial finales. Fans have definitely had a very loud say about what went down. Do you anticipate a similar reaction this year?

Hart I anticipate a reaction, that's for sure. I guess the short answer is, yes, this is what we do. We try to keep everyone interested and a season finale is a very good place and the natural place to change the direction of a series, and the 5th season, you got to do that. Yes, I think there will be some, I hope there will be some noise about it, otherwise we'll just go generally into that good night, which would be a shame.

Emily But may I just say that it is very different from last season's finale, as this episode is very much a Bones episode; whereas that episode took place in an alternate reality. So people who didn't like that aspect of that episode, which I thought was a lot of fun to do as an actor and I think it was a really interesting episode to do. But I know people made noise about it, because it was alternate reality and all that. This is definitely not in an alternative reality, can I say that?

Hart Oh, yes. This is the real Bones world.

Emily Yes, this is definitely, this fits into that, but there's huge, huge things that happen in the episode that does change the course of kind of everyone in—

Hart The whole gang.

Emily The whole gang. It's funny how subtle things can change people, but it changes people.

This is for Hart mostly, what's the story behind Billy Gibbons as Angela's dad? Are you a ZZ Top fan? Did you initially want him specifically or just any iconic rock star and was it hard to get him to play along?

Hart I always knew that Angela's dad, I always knew that Angela Montenegro was not Angela's real name, and I always knew that she had a rock star dad. Because it's just funny to me that the guys I idolized as a kid are all now grandfathers ... I didn't know who it would be. And when you start going through the list of rock stars who are instantly recognizable, you don't have to say, "Hey, my gosh, look at that, it's the lead singer of Journey," or something.

It's a very, very small group of people. I made a list of about five people who I wouldn't have to explain who they were. Now, not everybody knows Billy Gibbons name, but they would call him ZZ Top with that beard—

—and things, and he responded. He was on that very short list and he responded. This man was Jimmy Hendrix's favorite guitar player when he was 19 years old. He's an amazing, amazing person. So I selfishly used the fact that I had a TV series to meet one of my idols, and then he turned out to be a really interesting actor. It's still to me one of the great thrills of the show to have Billy Gibbons appear from time-to-time on our show when he's not touring the world being a huge rock star.

So you've said several times that this season now is going to be a game changer, but what will we get closer on in these last few episodes, whether it'll be the Grave Digger or Page 187 or otherwise?

Hart Page 187. Let's see, what do you think, Emily? I don't think there's a lot of closure.

Emily Yes, there isn't a lot of closer.

Hart We know we're going into season 6.

Emily Maybe the Grave Digger, there's some closure there.

Hart Yes, there's some closure and some not closure.

Emily Yes.

Hart Closure is not the word I would use as we barrel forward into season 6. What do you think, Emily?

Emily Agreed. I think it's overrated, we don't need closure. We've got a whole other season at least to go.

Hart That's right, that's right.

Well, we had a little closure with Angela and Hodgins’ marriage, I'd say. Was that sort of your way of throwing these impatient fans like a bone, like okay, you can have this one?

Hart No, I don't think of it that way. We've always known that Hodgins and Angela belong together. I just thought we'd do it not in a season finale.

We'd already done them getting married in a season finale. And I thought, let's just pop it in when no one's expecting it, that these two will get back together. The scene where they talk about how they broke up has existed since they broke up. It wasn't in a jail cell, I didn't know where it would happen, but that scene has existed and has been written for a long time where they realized how they let each other go. And it just felt like the right time to get them back together. I do sometimes think of the Hodgela, the Hodgela, the Hodgins/Angela relationship as a—

Emily Oh, you just coined a phrase.

Hart — like a steam valve. It lets off some pressure, but it's not small beer. It's, it's own story and we wanted to go into season 6 now with them married, that'll be fun.

Are we going to revisit Brennan's wish to have a baby?

Emily We were just discussing that yesterday, weren't we, Hart?

Hart At lunch. We were discussing it at lunch.

Emily Yes. We had lunch yesterday and we were discussing many things, but that was one thing that came up.

Hart That was one of the things that—

Emily Do you want to take that, answer that question?

Hart The short answer is yes. I always found it interesting that Brennan's interest in having a baby faded when the possibility of Booth being the father faded. I always thought that said something about her and her relationship. The fast answer is yes, we will revisit that facet of Brennan in season 6.

If there's one character trait you could give Brennan, what would you give her?

Emily Oh, that's so interesting. The things that you think of immediately like being more socially aware and things like that, I don't know if that would be helpful to just give somebody. I think it's better for someone to learn, maybe slowly, but to learn themselves how to grow in that way. Yes, I don't know if I would give, I think that life lessons come from learning how to either accept your limitations or to grow as a person and strengthen things that you have or learn new skills. I think that that builds character, so I don't know if I would just give her something, but I don't know.

Hart If I were you I'd say have the power of invisibility, but that's just me.

Emily I know, well, she said character trait, not like super power.

Hart I wasn't listening to the question.

Emily Then you—

I immediately went to super powers in my mind, and then I was like, that wasn't really the question. Invisibility is kind of often just generally for anyone to have that. Although it can be dangerous, you can walk into a room and hear people talking about you and that can be painful.

Hart Yes.

Emily But you could solve crimes maybe better.

Where do you see the end game of the show, like is there a final destination you want the characters to go to, to end the show?

Hart Emily?

Emily Morocco.

Hart Yes.

Emily Because I just want to go there, you know. I know it's silly, it's a selfish thing.

Hart I have a group of scenes written on my computer that are the end of Bones. Whether or not those actually become the end of Bones, I don't know. They've lasted so far from the second season. But a TV series is very, very organic, it goes where it wants to go, you can just kind of steer it, and give it nudges. There's so many things involved in it, but I do know the ending of Bones.

Again, one of the things Emily and I were talking about yesterday, is how long will Bones go? How long do we have? We're going into our 6th season, are we a 7 season show, are we a 6 season show, are we a 10 season show? That will all change as we try and gage that - how we do - as to what the ending of Bones is. I know that sounds oblique, but I do know where it's going, it's just how many steps that are between now and then there are I don't know.

Emily I didn't, that's news to me. So if someone knows how to hack into our computer—

Hart Why would I tell you, it might all change.

Emily Oh, it might change, yes.

Hart Yes.

Emily If someone knows how to hack into Hart's computer, then ...

Hart Would if somebody has a better idea than I have, it's happened.

You guys probably don't have a lot of control over time slots, but are you hoping maybe you get to stick at Thursday at 8:00 for awhile, because the numbers are good, and I think the fans like having you there? What do you think?

Hart We have been so grateful to have Thursdays at 8:00, even though it's a tough time slot. We're very, very happy to be there, and yes we do hope to stay there. And I have been assured by the network that we will stay there. Now they don't always keep those promises, and not because they're liars, it's just things change, and the schedule changes, but so far we're back at Thursday at 8:00. It's a good pairing with Fringe and I do hope we stay there.

I've always wished that we could have a kick at one of those nice fat 9:00 slots to see how we would do, but we are doomed to be a launch pad, an 8:00 show. So we accept it with good grace and it's a pretty good slot for us.

With 24 ending, there's a lot of talk about their big screen movie. Any thoughts on a future version of Bones, either of you?

Hart It's such a nebulous idea that really the real answer is no. It comes up every once in awhile as something we might do. It was even more talked about when we thought we're a four or five year show. It's like then maybe we could do a movie. I think it would be a lot of fun to do a movie, and I think our actors are up to it and up for it, but so far we're still really, really busy making a television show. But I hope someday we get a chance to do that, it would be really fun.

Emily That would be fun.

I wanted to ask you guys a little bit about the Grave Digger episode that's coming up. That's a character that freaks me out personally. The idea of being buried alive. And I wondered how are the characters handling it emotionally that they're encountering this person again?

Hart There you go, Emily.

Emily Yes, I mean, let me just say that the whole episode begins with Brennan's nightmare. Am I aloud to say that? I already did, I'll stop there.

Hart Yes, you can.

Emily Brennan is having nightmares about this, so it is affecting her deeply. And like I said it's part of the reason why she's questioning the whole murder business, so it affects her deeply. I don't want to speak for other characters.

Hart It's pretty tough on Hodgins too.

Emily Oh, yes, very tough on Hodgins.

Hart Yes.

Emily I think the two of us mostly, because we were the ones buried alive by the Grave Digger, and then Booth was as well, but we seem to take it harder.

Hart Well, and also, Booth was buried alive in a much nicer place to be buried alive. He had a whole ship to run around.

Emily It's true, it's true, good point, Hart, good point.

Hart Yes.

I see, so there are varying levels of terror—

Hart Yes.

—depending on where you're buried.

Hart Yes.

Got it.

Emily He had a bomb there, but it just doesn't seem as scary—

Hart Yes.

Emily —when you've got a lot of space.

Hart It's not as scary. I'd rather be blown up than buried alive.

Emily Me too, me too.

Hart Yes.

Emily Let me just say for the record, I said on a talk show that one of my biggest fears is being buried alive, and then one of the next scripts I got was the Grave Digger episode. And they swear that they wrote the episode before I went on the air, but I don't know.

I know you guys put in long hours, so what do you do when the camera is not rolling to kill the time in between?

Emily Wow. There's not a lot of in between time like film, but I do have breaks here and there. I personally on my breaks I learn my lines for the next day, so I don't know if that's taking time away from work. I don't know, do you have like hobbies, Hart?

Hart No, gosh, no. If I'm not writing, I'm reading. My year extends longer than Emily's, and she has a more brutal schedule when we're shooting. She has an irregular schedule. She can't just go to bed at 11:00 at night like a normal person. I made a pilot this year and I thought I'm getting too old for this. This is too much work doing Bones and a pilot.

It's hard to complain about our jobs. We're great, incredibly fortunate to be doing the jobs we do, but it's long hours and it seems to be all consuming. You just try and get some break time. I mean I have a family I would like to spend more time with, not much is the answer.

Emily We both work on our time off basically is what we're saying.

Hart Yes. Emily goes off and does a movie and I think she's insane. I would go home and sleep.

Emily Well you did a pilot this year.

Hart I know, that was insane.

Emily Look who's talking.

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