David Boreanaz

BONES’ DAVID BOREANAZ LOOKS FORWARD TO DEVELOPING HIS RELATIONSHIPS IN SEASON FIVE

The BONES actor/producer talks about where his series is going in its fifth season and gives props to his fans from BUFFY and ANGEL days

David Boreanaz seems like he’s in a good mood, and it’s understandable. On the personal front, he and his wife Jaime Bergman are expecting their second child at the time of this interview – daughter Bardot Vida has since been born, joining seven-year-old older sibling Jaden. On the professional front, BONES, the Fox network comedy-drama about the investigations and relationship of Dr. Temperance Brennan, played by Emily Deschanel, and Boreanaz’s FBI agent Seeley Booth, is going into its fifth season, with a pick-up for season six already announced.

At a party thrown by Fox for the Television Critics Association and at a Q&A session on the Fox set, Boreanaz talks about what’s going on with the spine of his series.

Booth woke up from a coma at the end of Season Four with some memory issues. How will that affect the character in Season Five? “He wasn’t really in a coma,” Boreanaz clarifies. “He had a brain aneurysm, it was removed. He just woke up from surgery, so I don’t think that he was in limbo there. I don’t think that it’s going to be something that we’re going to harp on for the whole season – you’ll get bits and pieces of it, but not each episode. He’ll eventually get all that [memory] stuff up. It’ll be little things, like he forgot how to be a plumber, so he wanted to hire some guy to do the plumbing in his apartment, it cost him eight hundred bucks, he can’t do it, [Brennan says], ‘Well, I’ll just give you the money,’ he’s, ‘No, I’ll just take care of it myself’ and gets the Dummies Book for plumbing. It’s that kind of stuff – not knowing exactly how to do things. In the first episode, he won’t be dressed like Booth, standard black FBI guy, no socks, nothing. He doesn’t remember. And it will slowly come back to him.”

We may also be seeing more of Booth’s workplace this year, Boreanaz suggests. “We are investigating [showing more of] the FBI, which I think is really interesting, because we have the squints [Brennan’s fellow scientists], but we haven’t seen much of the [FBI personnel] in Booth’s world, which I think is really interesting to see, whether it’s the FBI assistant or a CIA guy. We just worked with Christopher Duncan – he’s a great actor and he brought so much to the show.”

As for the relationship between Booth and Brennan, Boreanaz says it’s, “Pretty much back down to Ground Zero, as far as a man trying to court a woman and convince her that his feelings are right for her, but it’s hard because his brain’s a little messed up, so I think we can go anywhere with it, and obviously, really maintain the strong sense of relationship that we have, that we’ve always had. It’s always been about that, it always will be about that and where those two take us will really determine how it works out in a lot of ways. It feels like first season [in terms of freshness], but we know what we’re doing.”

The chemistry between Deschanel and Boreanaz has been present from the first, the actor observes. “ It definitely developed from the moment the two of us met. This is the best twosome in television, I think, as far as relationships of characters are concerned. When I walked into the room and we were testing [actresses to play opposite the already-cast Boreanaz], there were two other girls. There was this one girl who wa all pretty much thought was the part, but when Emily and I worked the scene, there was definitely some magic that happened in the room, and when you are fortunate enough to catch that lightning in a bottle, you don’t really have a sense of where it’s going to go or how it’s going to transform. So you work on it, and we have been working on it since Day One. In order to develop that chemistry, you have to trust the other person you’re working with. With that trust come a lot of things that you can’t really share with other people, because it’s between the two of us, and I cherish that. [Deschanel] is not only someone I work with, but she has become part of my family that I can look at and say I enjoy the moments I have with her, because they lead to me becoming a better person, and in doing so, I learn about her, I learn about myself and hence we get chemistry. I think that chemistry as developed in the last seasons in a very strong way.”

Boreanaz is one of the show’s producers, as well as being its male lead. What does being a producer entail for him? “It’s definitely something that you want to look on as being more a part of the whole of what goes on, meaning you want to make yourself available to production meetings, you want to make yourself available to prop meetings, you want to make yourself available to going in at certain times, even if you’re not working, to discuss ideas for casting, for wardrobe choices, discuss ideas for how the camera works as far as [cinematographer] meetings. Ultimately, [giving] input that makes sense. Taking leadership on as a producer is keeping the boat together creatively, and also understanding the ins and outs of where we are at financially with the show, where we stand budget-wise, what we can and can’t do, how many days we can go out [on location], what do we need to sacrifice in the front, as well as the band end? I think you become more aware of things like that when you take them on and you add to the conversation with it. That’s where it starts, understanding what it means to be a producer.”

Boreanaz says he can’t take credit for the two-year pick-up and indeed, he’s not worrying about Season Six just yet. “I don’t think of it as a two-year pick-up, I just think of it as, especially in Hollywood, the next episode you’re shooting on Season Five, because [an announcement of an additional season pick-up] to me doesn’t mean anything. I don’t want to listen to that kind of stuff, it’s not my territory. I mean, in a way it is, but I don’t necessarily obsess over it. I kind of gave that game up a long time ago.”

BONES has a strong fan following, who are in evidence at Comic-Con. Though Boreanaz did not attend this year, he’s gone in the past. “Having [starred in] ANGEL and BUFFY has given me a sense of having those fans follow me over to this show, which is great, because they are great fans and great people. It adds a level of good publicity for the show and even gives insight to people who haven’t seen this kind of show before. I think each individual is different with how they approach it. I think Comic-Con represents a real strong sense of showing support to people who watch your show, and I think that’s a very important thing to do, whether it’s a Comic-Con event or any kind of event, to show the fans that we appreciate what they do by tuning in and watching our show.”

So what is Boreanaz looking forward to most with BONES this year? “Oh, man. Different types of socks I get to wear,” he jokes, referencing Booth’s often bold footwear. “No, I’m looking forward to his strong sense of self and figuring things out and making him more aware in his present life with [Brennan] and how she fits into his life, and maybe a realization or an epiphany about how maybe it doesn’t work out at the end of the season. So there are a lot of ways we can go with this. I think that the relationship is the most important thing for me and it’s already apparent – it’s very strong right now, what the two of us are giving to each other, the trust that we have for each other. I’m looking forward to more people knowing the show, compared to last year. It seemed as though last year was a big year for us and we broke some walls and barriers. People said, ‘Oh, you really broke out of a nice little shell there’ and even today, people are saying, ‘I saw your show for the first time, I’m hooked on it.’ [During] the first two years of not really knowing where the show was and what was going on with it [in terms of time slot], we maintained.” Now BONES has a solid eight PM slot on Thursdays. “It feels like we’re keeping our stride in a way that’s on a different level. So I’m looking forward to more viewers.”