Unfortunately, Bones fans have to say goodbye to Booth and Brennan and the rest of the Bones gang. Fortunately, Fox gave the series a 12th and final season to wrap up storylines while providing viewers with a few more hours worth of entertainment. On what could be described as a farewell tour, the Bones cast appeared at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con where they thanked fans for their support while taking part in a Q&A. The stars of the series, including David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, also participated in interviews to talk about what’s in store for the upcoming final season of the popular series.
David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel Interview:
How do you feel going into the last season? Is your heart beating faster than usual starting up your final season?
Emily Deschanel: “I’m directing the first episode so my heart is definitely beating a little bit more, and this is the first time I’m directing. So, I’m excited about that but I also have tasks to focus on which is helpful. But coming here, you can’t help but think how this is our last Comic-Con, at least for Bones – or at least in this incarnation of Bones. You never know what could happen. It’s hard not to look back a bit on the show and where we’ve come and what we’ve been through and what we’ve experienced in this amazing journey. I feel so lucky for our fans. So, yeah, it’s exciting. We’ll be sad; we’ll go through the gamut of emotions in the next few months when we film the 12 episodes.”
David directed the season 11 finale and you’re directing the season 12 premiere, so did you discuss how to make those episodes really connect?
Emily Deschanel: “We have only talked a little bit about that but I’ve been watching his episode which he did an amazing job of. I really hope they replay it. I don’t know what happened on the East Coast but on the West Coast, the [Republican National] Convention postponed it and then it didn’t start at the beginning of the episode, it started 40 minutes in…”
David Boreanaz: “That’s a confusing episode.”
Emily Deschanel: “Don’t get me started!”
David Boreanaz: “The type of episode that is, you don’t want to go 40 minutes into. All of a sudden you just see a bad dream. Like, ‘What the hell is that?’ It’s just like a horror film.”
Emily Deschanel: “I kept thinking, ‘What are people thinking of this episode when they just come into it?’ It will make no sense coming 40 minutes in.”
David Boreanaz: “None. Zero.”
Emily Deschanel: “David did an amazing job so I’ve been studying his episode like a very good student and I’ve talked to all the crew and our cinematographer and gaffer – we have a new gaffer – to make sure that the look is very similar to what David did. Obviously it’s a continuation of the same story, so the story is very cohesive.”
David Boreanaz: “But there’s a lot of surprises though.”
Emily Deschanel: “There’s a lot of twists and turns.”
David Boreanaz: “Yeah, there are. It’s going to be good.”
It’s not like a two-parter, is it?
Emily Deschanel: “No, but it’s like a continuation of the season finale because it happens right after. Even in the way we talk about the days in this episode, we start on day three which is from his episode. It’s just a continuation of the same story. It’s a really fun episode I’m excited to direct. Lots of twists and turns.”
When you’re directing an episode and reading the script, do you look at your characters different than you do as an actor? Do you see different things in your character?
Emily Deschanel: “You’ve directed more than I have.”
David Boreanaz: “Yeah. I mean, given the circumstances of where the characters are in the story. You obviously kind of dive into it that way. For me, I just read the script over and over and over again, get a sense of where the characters are, and then relate it to if I can create a vision for them in order to see where my vision was going. So they kind of work hand-in-hand.”
Emily Deschanel: “It’s seeing the bigger picture more, too. I’ve experienced just prepping, you’re seeing things. You’re going to know the episode intimately so much more than we do when we film it because I’ll know all the scenes I’m not in as well as if I were doing everything with it. You just have to know every aspect of it and the broader picture of the story, so you think in that way. You think about it more, so you think about that in terms of your performance too. [Joking] But, then you have to work with difficult actors…”
What does Zack coming back mean for your characters?
David Boreanaz: “Booth’s relationship with Zack was always…he just kind of of bothered Booth. Booth kind of looked through that and didn’t want to deal with him. He’s a genius so they just came from two different worlds.”
Emily Deschanel: “But so did Booth and Brennan. He was even farther.”
David Boreanaz: “For Booth’s character, I think he’d be more interested in Brennan’s looks. I’m just saying, you had the whole package. That’s it. I do think that with Zack, we may see something in the first episode of this new season where maybe there’s a leap of faith from a character to give him some sense of identity. It’s kind of fun to see what happens with that. For me, for Booth’s character, I’ll see how that evolves. I don’t really feel like I have any with his character.”
Emily Deschanel: “There’s even dialogue about them not being friends before. It will be interesting how that goes. My character, he was my protege. I loved him and then he betrayed us, but at the same time we have such affection and such sadness. And then there’s betrayal again for what he’s done. He kidnaps me and is very likely killing these other people. So there’s a mix of emotions from the cast and the characters. It’s not just one emotion. There’s so many different things going on. It’s nice to see somebody that you care for and you haven’t seen for a long time, but at the same time there’s great betrayal and confusion so it’s a lot. Every emotion you can think of.”
Brennan is such a role model to young girls. What advice do you have for young women leaving college and getting started in the world?
Emily Deschanel: “Well, the best compliment that I have heard is young girls saying they want to become a scientist because of this show. There’s a lot of strong female intelligent characters on this show and that’s one reason why I wanted to do the show. I say keep studying and keep working hard. There’s no limit. Really, there isn’t a limit to what girls can achieve and I love that more girls and young women are going into sciences and math areas of study.”
Watch the Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz interview:
