Q & A: Emily Deschanel of ‘Bones’

December 9, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Interviews

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:18 — 11.9MB)

Emily Deschanel has played the title character in Bones for 6 seasons. Usually that’s when shows start to sag but not Bones. In tonight’s moving episode, you get to see a different side to ‘Brennan’; a side that the audience hasn’t really seen.

Titled, The Doctor in the Photo, it centers on a Dr. whose life revolves around her work. When the Dr. is found dead, Brennan sees herself in the victim. “She starts relating to the character, believing that it’s her. “(The case) forces Brennan into a place where she is bold and kind of aware of her feelings in a way that she hasn’t been before,” Deschanel said.

I talked to Emily in a conference call where she talked about the emotional toll this episode took on her, if anything about character still surprises her and of course, I asked her advice to actors.

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download from iTunes.

Does it ever get exhausting playing Brennan, because she’s so serious and factual? You, yourself always come across as so lively. Is it hard to be in that state of mind a lot?

Emily Deschanel: Yes and no. I think that Brennan has (a) become a lot more open over the years and you get to see her kind of dorky, quirky side at times, which is fun. I hang on to those moments and try to incorporate things like that in every episode. My favorite things about people in general is that they have contradictions. Brennan is no exception to that rule. I love exploring the contradictions of her character and all of that.

No, I’m an actor, too. So playing a character who’s very different from myself is one of the best things to happen to me, especially in a television series. So many times people are hired to play something very close to who they are in real life. It’s a wonderful opportunity to play this character who is very different. I can’t say that I don’t possess some qualities that are similar or that sometimes I don’t remind myself of her, when I behave like a real, I don’t know, nerd—I say that in the most affectionate way—but, I’m very different. So, I love the fact that I am different from the character. But, that’s true sometimes, especially when you’re doing certain episodes. You come home and you take it home a little bit with you.

I have tried to make boundaries for myself where I leave work at work. If I have lines to learn, I do all my acting work on the weekends and then I learn my lines the day before. If there’s any work that needs to be done before the next day, I do it at work. I don’t leave work until I’ve finished that. I don’t like to take work home with me. That means staying late even after working 15 hours. I’ll stay late an hour or two just to make sure I get everything right. I try to set those boundaries so I don’t take things home, but that said, it does leak into your personal life sometimes.

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