Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of Bones, Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, Tamara Taylor, and TJ Thyne participated in the Bones Cast: The Interview panel Saturday at 11:30AM in the Marriott.
The moderator started off the panel asking the cast if they thought that first day that they would be talking about the show twenty years later. Thyne joked “yes, day one” they were there on set thinking about twenty years later. Emily admitted she never thought the show would last as long as it did or that they’d be talking about the show all this time later. The fact that they are was thanks to the fans.
Boreanaz noted how at the first day on set, he was focused on what kinds of socks Booth would wear. He mentioned showing up at a network party wearing black Converse shoes that would be accurate to the character. He was told he could not wear those, he had to earn them and had to change to black Vans.
Deschanel noted that there was a light heartedness to the show and cast and it took showrunners a while to figure that out.
The moderator asked the actors what made the fans connect with the show to ensure its popularity for so long?
Thyne joked if only we had a room full of people to ask. Deschanel believes it appealed to people for a variety of reasons. Some people loved the show because of specific characters. Others loved the gross bodies studied in the show. Still others loved solving the crimes and found it comforting because the cast always got the bad guy at the end of the episode. Or most of the time.
Boreanaz brought up that the relationships among the cast was great and those relationships on the show were true. He also noted the guest stars on the show were fun, while some of the directors for episodes were interesting.
The moderator switched things up by asking the panelists if they could play any other character on the show, who would it be? Boreanaz was quick to identify John Francis Daley’s character Sweets. Deschanel thought it would be fun to play the grave digger. Thyne joked he’d be the liquid body from one episode.
The discussion turned to jokes about the various insects on the sets of various episodes and if one got lost, the entire cast would have to clear out. Boreanaz joked he pretended to step on a bug and show staff was so upset with him. He never lived it down. Taylor referenced an episode where a lot of spiders came out of a corpse.
While referencing the technical jargon on the show, the moderator asked the actors who had the most challenging dialogue. The all agreed Thyne had the most challenging dialog. Boreanaz joked how thanks to his character, he could mispronounce words and it didn’t matter. He also noted how Deschanel had such hard dialog, yet handled it and the role with such gracefulness.
Thyne talked about coming in for a day’s shoot hoping for “Hey Angela, how was last night?” and instead his lines were filled with difficult science jargon. Boreanaz then joked about the interesting places Thyne would put his lines, such as hiding them in the body they’d be examining on set. Boreanaz would sometimes go move it before shooting so Thyne then had to search for it. One time, Thyne had the dialog in his hand, so if you watch the show you can see him hiding it.
When asked their favorite episodes, Boreanaz referenced the pilot because it was the inception of the show. Taylor loved the Norwegian Death Metal episode where Sweets went undercover in that episode. For Thyne, he loved the episode where he and Deschanel got buried in a car and Thyne’s character admitted he was rich and that he was in love with Angela. Deschanel loved a Christmas episode from season one with a man from a fallout shelter and how Boreanaz’s character Booth was high from a vaccine.
The cast discussed the lab, which was a big part of the show. Taylor noted how the characters had to swipe a badge to go onto the set, except the card reader would hardly ever work properly. Thyne talked about how they always had to pull gloves on when they went on the lab, and that sometimes they struggled to get the gloves on before they got to their lines and would have to hide their hands. He also reminisced about filming on the lab in the pilot episode. The scene was shot in a science center in LA with an open ceiling. It was pouring rain during the shoot, so they had to sit off to the side, waiting for a break in the rain, hurry up to the lab to shoot a few lines before it started raining again.
Thyne also talked about his time playing his character Hodgins in a wheelchair. Thyne said he wanted the rest of the cast used to thinking of the character in a wheelchair, so during that time he would always get to set before anyone so they would only see him in the wheelchair. He noted he was very touched that people commented on how well he handled that role.
A question from the audience asked the cast if there were any planned episodes they wanted to do that unfortunately never happened. Deschanel noted Boreanaz wanted the episode where Booth was an old man. They had written up the episode and prepped for it, but timing didn’t work out. Deschanel mentioned her agent suggested a Freaky Friday type episode for Booth and Bones. Boreanaz joked such an episode would have been hard for him, because he’d have to learn to pronounce all the complicated science words. He signed up to be a cop.
Taylor believed that her character Cam should have had a little darker side than everyone expected. Like a nightlife that no one knew about.
If you missed the panel, attendees can catch the actors on the Walk of Fame.
