David Boreanaz

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) His appearances as a soulful vampire on Joss Whedon’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and his own spin-off, "Angel," made David Boreanaz a star. But Whedon — a writer, director and producer — believed that the actors on his shows should say their lines only as written.

Now the star of FOX’s freshman forensic drama "Bones" (recently picked up for a full season), Boreanaz plays FBI Agent Seeley Booth, who partners in crimefighting with forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), whom he refers to as a "squint" (a nickname for scientists, who "squint" a lot in their work).

Created by Hart Hanson ("Joan of Arcadia," "Judging Amy"), and based on characters created by novelist and forensic anthropologist (and show producer) Kathy Reichs, "Bones" returns to the schedule on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. ET, after a break for the World Series.

As Booth, Boreanaz gets to play around with his lines, which is a big change from his "Buffy" and "Angel" days.

"That became very frustrating," he says. "For an actor to be able to create and also have a sense of freedom, you have to be able to revolve around those words and create around those words. Now, you can take the written word and have your subtext tell more than is written on the page, which is always fun and challenging too. But it’s always great to revolve around the words and improvise and change things, because that comes from the character’s perspective and point of view.

"Ultimately it comes from the writer, but it’s the actor who breathes life into the character and makes it real. Having Hart to allow us to do that, it’s a blessing."

"Yeah," Hanson says, "all we do is edit it back to what the script was. We’re very upfront about it, ’Do it this way. Do it your way.’ In fact, I’m lying; sometimes we do it his way. He has a rhythm that really works for him, so we use it.

"The poor people who have to say it exactly as scripted are the squints. They speak in perfectly formed sentences without hesitation because their IQs are so high, whereas Booth is a normal human being."

On this day on the sleek, modern set of "Bones" at 20th Century Fox Studios, Boreanaz does his rehearsals in a white gym shirt and shorts, and rainbow socks. He then switches to his dark suit for filming, but the rainbow socks stay.

"It’s always something," Hanson says. "His tie is always a little off. His socks are a little off. His boxers are a little off. That’s a character thing. We’ve only shown the boxer shorts once, when they had to drop their pants to get their shots. He was wearing Santa Claus boxers."

After seeing Boreanaz carry the weight of the world as Angel, who always seemed to be staving off one apocalypse or another, it’s fun to watch him having fun as Booth, from the socks to the odd objects that he sequesters in his pockets. These include dice, which he pulls out and fingers behind his back, grinning mischievously, on his way into a take.

"I love Booth’s double takes," Boreanaz says, "and his sense of style. I always tend to have some kind of homage to Steve McQueen. I have such an admiration for him and hold him in high regard, as somebody who represented the classic American kind of actor. So it’s really been a gungslinging kind of role for me."

Of course, at this point in the show’s brief history, the feisty Brennan seems to have beaten up more guys than Booth has.

"Well," Boreanaz says, "I carry a gun. Maybe that speaks more volumes. I can have an Indiana Jones moment, just shoot the guy."

Boreanaz reveals that there are a few revelations coming up about Booth’s character. "One of the curses for him, a vice, is that gambling is going to come up in his life. I know he was a gambler, and he lost a lot when he was gambling, so it’s something I find interesting, rather than prescription drugs or alcohol.

"He’s so particular. He’s very patient. He was a sniper. He analyzes things like he analyzes his betting sheet or his crap tables. I think he’s definitely one for the ponies. He plays casino games.

"Also, he’s going to have an illegitimate kid. Those are things that are turning him into the way he is. He can’t see his kid, he wants to see his kid, but he’s not allowed because of certain circumstances. That’s all good stuff."

In Reichs’ novels, which also feature Temperance Brennan, she dates a cop (a different character from Booth) who has a child. Interestingly enough, that didn’t inspire Hanson to add this particular plot twist — it was seeing Boreanaz with his own young son.

"He’s so wonderful with him," Hart says. "I wanted to see that in Booth."

Even with all these complications, for Boreanaz, Booth remains a simple creature.

"I’ve said this before, he eats the cheeseburger, the cup of coffee, the meatloaf special, the apple pie a la mode. He’s got a sense of nostalgia in him. He’s a man of the past in many ways, and his past revolves around the ’50s and ’60s.

"There’s a lot of that in me. I really enjoy that era. I enjoy that style. I enjoy the way films were made back then. It was a very romantic, enchanting time. It was pretty simple, I like that."