transcribed by Setje © Boreanaz.net

Buffy/Angel Mag N° 29
February/March 2007

David Boreanaz exclusively discusses his Angel past and new show Bones !

Chilled to the Bones
By Abbie Bernstein

David Boreanaz has been in this situation a few times before - going into the second season of a show that has come through its first season with warm reviews and the beginnings of a cult following . The difference is that now he's playing human FBI agent Seeley Booth on Bones, rather than brooding vampire, Angel.

So, when did David and the Bones gang get the good news about renewal ?

"Well," David explains at a press party thrown by the Fox Network at the Pasadena Ritz-Carlton Hotel, "we had a sense going into the end of March. The show was picking up some really great speed and the characters were evolving around the secondary plotline with Temperance Brennan's [a.k.a Bones, played by Emily Deschanel] parents missing, and everything just started coming together for us. Fox was gracious enough to greenlight that a week before the upfronts [presentations in May to the television advertisers], which gave us a great opportunity to really staff up with some great writers and get ready for Season Two, which we're really into and having a great time with."

Will the storyline about Temperance's parents be woven throughout the second season as well?

"That's something for Hart [Hanson, Bones co-creator and show-runner]," David replies, "but I do believe that that will maintain through the season - I think it's a strong enough arc that we can go anywhere we want to go with that, so it really opens up the door for many possibilities."

Other possibilities are being opened by the addition of some new characters - Rebecaa, played by Jessica Capshaw, who is the mother of Seelley's four-year-old son, and Dr. Camille Saroyan, played by Tamara Taylor, who is now running Temperance's forensics department and is Seeley's old flame. "It's a bit more of a triangle with Camille," David notes. "She definitely has something to do with my past, and she is probably coes from the low end of forensics and working in basements and not the Jeffersonian [the high-end institution where Bones and Co. Work] with the toys. So it's a whole new beautiful world to her, but we've had a past. We're tying slowly to expose what that is, and that'll be quite a ride for the audience to watch the heat between us while the Brennan/Booth combination goes on ever better."

Tamara will be familiar to Joss Whedon fans from her role as oung River's teacher in Serenity; while the actress also appeared as Walt's late mother on Lost. Tamara says of herself and David, "We are Joss Whedon super-fans. Love Joss. Joss is amazing. What struck me about him - we did a table read for Serenity and I was struck by his sense of loyalty. When the show [Firefly] got canceled, he came and he broke the news to the cast and he promised them that he would turn this into a movie, and he said, "A year later, we're here - and we're here with everyone.' And I thought, 'What a great thing, because in Hollywood, loyalty is not necessarily a top priority, and what a beautiful man to keep that.'"
It sounds as though Tamara is also a big fan of David's. "He's hilarious!" she asserts with a laught. "That's the first word that comes to mind. He's funnier than anybody knows. He's like a hard-boiled, old-fashioned Italian guy. And talented. So all of that's fun. We're having a really good time just discovering [the characters'] relationship and uncovering some nuance between the three of us [Seeley, Camill and Temperance], which is really nice."

David agrees that the characters' personal lives are going to be important in year two of Bones. "There's Tamara as Camille; there's Jessica [as] Rebecca - there's a lot of women in [Seeley's] life who are coming back to step into his space and find out what the deal is, what's going on. So [the writers] are going to maintain that and, at the same time, see where that goes. And the relationship with Brennan is going to be interesting, too. The show is my relationship with her, her relationship with me. To maintain that quirkiness and that flirtatious stuff, to draw a line saying, 'Will they, won't they?' It's very important for the show, and to me, that's what the show is all about."

Well, maybe not all - Bones does have it's fair share of action mixed in with its emotions. David says he's learned a lot about weapons in the last year.
"Responsibility, obviously, with a firearm. Mike Grosso, who was the tech advisor and an undercover police officer, taught me that. He taught me a lot about [gun safety] and a different sense of one's own security and protecting family and home and what's important ; the responsibility about handling a handgun, what it's about, what it means.
Hopefully, we'll have more stunts to do this season - we have a really good one in the first episode. I'm really excited about the way the first episode came out, and this new co-executive [producer] on board, Tony Wharmby, who's from The X-Files. He's a fantastic producer and he'll be with us every episode, directing, I think, four or five of them. He just adds a nice, interesting mystery to the show, as well as a new D.P. for us, Gordon Landon, [who is] taking the show and giving it more of a darker-edged look, which I think really defines the show better."

When asked about personal highlights of Bones so far, David responds, "There were a few vulnerable moments [In Season One] that brought me to some interesting places. Some scenes in Episode 20 when I had to go back to the sniper and talk about how I killed somebody in front of this six-year-old boy. Things like that are always challenging and vulnerable, and you show different sides of yourself. It's scary. But I think also really maintaining [Seeley's] sense of humor through a lot of it was fun for me . It was challenging. I just had a great time with him. He continues to evolve and I look forward to having another seaosn with him and finding out new things about him.
'I'm just happy about the fact that we were able to sustain 22 episodes in the first season of the show, maintain the character relationship and maintain that relationship between myself and Emily [Deschanel], and keep those characters driven and driving the procedural, rather than having the procedural drive us. To me, it's more of an interesting story when it's all about the character. I'm not really one for the procedural outlook on life, so that's exciting to me, when I have that kind of an opportunity to drive it with the character. That's what I'm really proud of."

What did David do during the hiatus between Seasons One and Two ?

"A lot of paint by numbers, I got into that," he laughs. "No, we didn't have much time. It was a quick hiatus for me. I think we had a month off."

Is there anything else David would like to say about how his career and life are going these days?

"Presently, all good, man, all good."

Making No Bones

David Boreanaz at the San Diego Bones Panel 2006
By Tara Dilullo

You went from the Scooby Gang on Buffy to the Squint Squad on Bones. What's it like working with the new ensemble?

I've go the Dream Machine parked outside with some tie-dye. [Laught] T.J. Thyne (Jack Hodgins), Eric Millegan (Zack Addy); Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), they are great.
This season, for me, is really a turn in the curve for the show and you're going to see these character really impact on each another. It's funny to see how television evolves, whether it's cult fantasy, to genres, to young ensembles, to two people going back and forth, you have that on our show with a great ensemble.

Are you looking at doing anything comedic soon ?

Those kinds of roles will come my way with the opportunity that I have on Bones. I have a movie called Mr. Fix-It, and I'm not sure what they are going to do with it yet. Another movie [Suffering Man's Charity] I did with Alan Cumming is a darker film, more way out there. It's on my plate and I foresee more [comedy] coming down my line in the next five years. I enjoy it, and for me it's always about a script, the people involved. I like to enter things as a team player, and look at it like you put a squad together and you go and put your best foot forward with that. It really all depends on what it's all about. It's tough. All the elements have to work, so it's a lot of luck.

Where do you see your career going in the next few years ?

Climbing mountains and maintaining my sense of security by keeping my feet on the ground, and maintaining what my life dictates in order to see what kinds of characters I choose to play. It's really new. I've only been doing this for nine years. I didn't have this growing up as a kind. I wasn't a child actor. I went to college. I travelled through Europe. I experienced a different way of getting into the business. For me, the challenge has always been to look at other roles and take them on to surprise people and surprise myself. If I can continue to do that, then I will enjoy every moment that comes my way.

After playing a character for a long time on one television series, is it challenging starting a new character on a different show ?

Yeah, I never looked at things for face value. If the fear is there for me, or I'm terrified of a situation, then I know I am in the right place.
Without that, I wouldn't have those challenges and those goals and things I place ahead of me. It's tough. Being able to be on a sucessful show like Buffy, and have that pop, then all of a sudden I have my own show. Instead of fighting that and saying, 'No, I'm not going to do that,' and hold out for things, I go for the ride with things and let it unfold. My father taught me that. To me, the characters that come into my life, come for a specific reason, and you take a piece of them with you, whatever you are working on. It's an enjoyable challenge and one that I will always have, and I embrace that rather than push it aside.

Wo do you have more chemisstry with - Sarah Michelle Gellar or Emily Deschanel ?

Good question. I think it's all dependent on the time and space. [Smiles and laughts] I won't answer that one. I look at them both as great experiences. I love my connection with Emily so much. And those days that I had with Sarah were fantastic days too, because I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had no clue where I was going and I just showed upd. It was really a work in progress, and it still is, so I can't really pick one.

Will movies be more of your focus after this series?

In order to get to those levels, you have to work on your craft. I am doing that. I look at it as a journey, because those roles will come, whether it's a television series, a play or a film. For me, there's a mark on the floor - you hit your mark, you don't bump into the furnitures, you go home, you take care of your family and call it a day.
There are some people that say you should just do television or just do film, but ask those people now and a lot of people that are doing television are film actors. I don't think you would get that complaint these days. I look at it as a craft. I enjoy it. I love it and take it on.

What do you do when you initially get a script?

In the beginning, I feverishly look at a script. The first thing I do is break it down, word to word, frontward, sideways, backwards... I look at that script from all different angles. The hardest part for me is the memorization. It sucks! It's the worst part ever. Painful. Then the beauty beings. I work really presently with what's going on in my life. I apply it to my work. An insight into my work is an insight into my personal life, in a way. You'll see a lot of what's going on in my life through the characters and what's going on in the scene-to-scene stuff. I really work from the inside out.