On the Phone with Bones’ Emily & Zooey Deschanel

Fact: Emily Deschanel prefers to sleep in on Christmas while Zooey prefers to get up early. That’s just one of the details we learned when sisters, and now co-stars, Emily and Zooey Deschanel participated in a conference call with reporters last week to promote Zooey’s guest turn as Brennan’s cousin on the December 10 episode of Bones.

Working together for the first time “was fun,” says Zooey. Emily recalled that the first day they were on set, they filmed a scene with just the two of them and Ryan O’Neal, who plays Brennan’s dad. Talking about acting, it sounded like although they’re in the same profession, the sisters are pretty laid back about it. As Emily says, they’re “supportive, but not fanatical.” Emily originally wanted to be an architect or engineer and went to school with that in mind while Zooey started acting first. Although each primarily works in a different medium (Emily on television, Zooey in movies), they try to keep up with each other’s projects as much as they can.

When someone asked if there are other sisters or siblings that they admire, the Deschanel sense of humor was on full display. “The Kardashians, of course,” deadpans Emily. “And the Olson twins,” chimes in Zooey.

Zooey’s character on Bones, Brennan’s cousin Margaret, is nothing like Zooey in real life. The relationship between Temperance and Margaret “doesn’t mirror our relationship at all,” say the sisters. When asked if there’s any sort of flirtation between Margaret and Booth, the answer is a resounding “NO!” Sounds like Brennan’s claim on Booth is pretty obvious. And speaking of the romance between our leads, Emily addressed how the show is handling that relationship fairly head on this season.

“We’re in the fifth season of the show where the two characters have this chemistry together.  Yet nothing has happened and I think that it’s a great way to explore this relationship and take it to another level without actually necessarily having some physical connection, I guess, to put it that way. I think it’s clever.  I like this aspect. It takes the relationship in a new direction and it takes it to a deeper place.

“The fact that both Booth and Brennan had that—well, Brennan wrote the book while Booth was in the coma and then Booth had the coma dream that was inspired by the book.  The fact that it didn’t happen in reality almost doesn’t matter that much because it happened in their minds and they can’t get it out of their minds, especially we’ve been exploring Booth because his feelings are a little more on the surface.  I think it’s an interesting dynamic and I welcome it.  I think it’s a clever way to deepen the relationship and explore the couple in a new relationship in a way. It’s almost like a new relationship.”

What else is coming up on Bones this season? Richard T. Jones guest stars in an episode that examines the Kennedy assassination as only the Squints and Booth can, and Diedrich Bader returns as Booth’s boss. Will he attempt a to draw Brennan’s attention again? Emily doesn’t say, but it sounds like an opportunity to move Booth/Brennan relationship along a bit more.

As we prepare to sign off, the sisters report that they have no plans to record any duets (Zooey is half of the She & Him folk duo, and demonstrated her musical talent in Elf), but they do hope to act together again. It may take another five years, but Emily tells Zooey, “We’d love to have you back.” For her part, Zooey says that, “it was really fun to watch Emily work. I enjoyed it and I’m excited to see the episode.

“The Goop in the Girl,” the Bones Christmas episode featuring Zooey Deschanel, airs Thursday, December 10 on FOX. See more photos from the episode in the Gallery.

PHOTOS: Zooey Deschanel Visits Emily On Bones

Confession: I watch Elf at least twice every Christmas, and it’s not because of Will Ferrell’s Buddy (although I do love his take on the four food groups). I don’t fast forward Zooey’s “the touch, the feel of cotton” commercial. I have yet to see (500) Days of Summer, only because it never came to my small town’s theater.

Yes, I have a girlcrush on Zooey Deschanel. I also have a girlcrush on Emily Deschanel. Put them on screen together for the first time, and in a Christmas episode no less, and you’ve got one happy Nice Girl! Here are the first photos of the Deschanel sisters on Bones, where Zooey guest stars as Margaret, a newly discovered distant relative that Brennan’s father brings to Christmas dinner.

See photos from more episodes of Bones, including next week’s “The Gamer in the Grease” featuring Avatar, in our Gallery.

Bones at Comic Con

Following a fun-filled reminder of what makes Bones the show we either go “aww” or “eww” over, the short panel at Comic Con started with one half of the crime fighting duo Emily Deschanel (David Boreanez was in LA due to his wife’s pregnancy) and creator Hart Hanson. David, feeling remorse for not being there, did send a very nice video explaining his absence before entering into a ramble about what he would have done had he been able to attend.

The first point of discussion during the panel had to deal with Booth and Brennan “sleeping” together at the end of last season. Hanson has decided that he should never give spoilers out to fans because it only ends badly for him. When pressed further about the finale, Hanson described it as a “love letter to the loyal fans”, despite some fans calling it a “failnale”, as a series of inside jokes to the fans who had been with the show for all four seasons. The moderator, William Keck from TV Guide, then went on to ask the audience their opinion of whether Booth and Brennan be together. Deschanel called foul after the screams, saying that some people double voted in the couple versus non-couple straw poll.

When Bones returns for a fifth season, the action will pick up six weeks later with Booth still confused about what is going on (is what happened in the finale what’s real, or is it what we’ve seen for the last four years?). There were some teases about Booth either being confused as he comes back to work, or something else, while Brennan has left for Guatemala to escape the issue all together.

Brennan wanting to be a mother will be addressed this season, although Hanson tried to tell Deschanel to lie about the specifics. This lead to an amusing game of wordplay with both of them basically stating that anything they said on the panel may or may not be true.

Along the lines for other notes about season five, Boreanaz will be directing the one hundredth episode of the show. Deschanel said she’d be interested in directing at some point, at which point Hanson got defensive about the time it would take her to pull that off considering she already works 75-80 hour weeks.

After Deschanel sang a Cyndi Lauper song during the third season, that led to a conversation with Lauper appearing in this season’s premiere. Details revealed that Lauper will play Angela’s psychic, who will have some connection to the case of the week.

Deschanel’s interest in animal rights was the next topic—noting that the episode with the circus had no animals at all, and that the episode with the zoo would also suggest that not everyone is in favor of captivity. There’s an episode this season with a chicken farm.

Before the panel ended, Deschanel talked about going out on a date with Jared Booth (the wrong Booth). Jared will be back at some point this season although details are scarce.

The fan questions led to a brief conversation about Tamara being the most squeamish about the bugs and bodies when she first joined the cast. Another asked if Eric Milligan, and Zach Addy, would be back. Hanson replied that it depends on Eric’s new schedule (he’s moving back to New York) and some technical aspects of getting him from New York to LA. The final question asked was about the letter that Brennan wrote after the Gravedigger episode, which will be addressed in the fifth or sixth episode this season.

Emily Deschanel & David Boreanaz Ready to Get in Bed Together

In the latest issue of TV Guide (scans are in the Gallery), Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz show off some trademark Brennan and Booth banter as they discuss their characters’ season finale coupling on Bones. Are they worried about ratings dropping once their characters finally get together? No, says Deschanel:

“It’s dangerous when you get two characters together – a lot of shows fizzle out when that happens – but then the audience really wants it. So you have to be creative. We’ve already kissed, even though Brennan was blackmailed into it, and we enjoyed it a little more than we’d like to admit. Once they get together, their relationship will only be stronger.”

Boreanaz gets right to the heart of their relationship when he says, “We’re always put in situations where we have to live together and pretend we’re having sex, but the show revolves around how much they care for each other in tender and loving ways.” That is what sets Booth and Brennan apart from many of the other “will they or won’t they couples” on TV; their genuine affection for each other and real friendship means adding sex to the mix will, as Deschanel says, make them stronger.

The real fun begins when the two start talking about how The Big Scene will go down. Boreanaz claims that he’s going “all in. I’m not going to be wearing a sack.”

“What?” exclaims Deshanel. “This is the first I’ve heard of that!” Boreanaz quickly amends his position to say that he’ll be respectful, he’ll be wearing his underwear and place a pillow strategically.

“I am totally a gentleman. You’ve got a delicate flower here. You can’t bruise the petals.”

“Hey, how’d you like a little knuckle sandwich?” retorts Deschanel.

Talk then turns to whether Brennan will ask Booth to be her baby daddy. Deschanel posits that Brennan will approach that decision scientifically but would probably decide Booth would be a good co-parent. Of course, she’ll want to do a DNA screen first.

“You think I’m going to get pricked? Forget it, I’m out!” says Boreanaz.

“You don’t get pricked, you get swabbed for DNA,” Deschanel reminds him.

“No one is swabbing anything. We could do a whole episode about why she can’t get my DNA. There are so many possiblities with a show like this, but the important part is that these two characters are together and making it relatable.”

Relatable indeed. Bones finally returns Thursday, March 12 at 8/7c on Fox. You can read the entire interview in our Gallery. Thanks to SpoilerTV for the scans.

Nice Girls Radio Returns with Bruce Campbell & Emily Deschanel!

In our first show of 2009, the Nice Girls have interviews with Burn Notice’s Bruce Campbell and Bones‘ Emily Deschanel, plus we’ll be talking about what’s been happening in TV land and previewing tonight’s premiere of The Beast on A&E. Join us at 12PM Central today on Nice Girls Radio!

David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel on Season 4 of “Bones”

SpoilerTV has an interview with ‘Bones’ and ‘Booth’ about the coming season of Bones. Read on!

David Boreanaz
Re: Starting Season Four off in London
“We kick off in London so it’s like- it’s a two parter so to speak and find Bones and Booth in London. She’s speaking at Oxford and I’m speaking in Scotland Yard and there’s an American businessman over here and her – his daughter gets murdered. We pull her car out of the Thames and comes a unity between Scotland Yard, the FBI, the forensics on their end and the forensics on our end. “

Re: Some of the locations they filmed at in London
“We shot at the Guild, which is an old kind of church where they tried people I mean back in the 15th Century. An old pub, Henry VIII’s shooting grounds, his old pub, I mean, the Thames, Big Ben in the background obviously. We’re doing the double-decker bus thing. We’re doing the Mini. We’re doing the City of London with the turnaround I can’t get right. Stuck in the turnaround. You know, all those things. I think what’s beautiful about shooting here is that you really have put these two characters in just a historical place. Everywhere you look there’s just something amazing to look at or very old. So it’s great.”

Re: Booth’s” reaction to “Ian Wexler” (Andrew Buchan) hitting on “Bones” (Emily Deschanel)
“Wexler obviously is the forensics guy over here and he’s, you know, moving in on her, which, you know, that’s fine, but at the same time it’s going to drive me a bit crazy obviously.”

Re: Attempting an accent
“You are going to have to watch the show because Booth does a lot of; he attempts an accent, which makes it even better that – I’m not even going to tell you what happens, but it’s happening in this scene. It’s really good.”

Re: The relationship between “Booth” and “Bones” (Emily Deschanel)
“Booth and Bones are already in bed so to speak, metaphorically speaking. They’re like an old couple. They’re like, you know, Hepburn and Tracy kind of romance, old film. I like to look at them as the bickering couple that continues to grow with each other.”

Re: How “Booth” and “Bones” (Emily Deschanel) will work together in the season premiere
“In this show particularly it’s the type of episode that you, really see these two work together abroad and it’s just different. It’s different for Booth. It’s different for her. S= and that just creates just some really funny moments, whether it’s with the royalty or whether it’s with the common people or whether it’s just with the way that Scotland Yard operates and the FBI operates. It’s just, it’s great to be a part of, you know, this type of an episode.”

Re: British fans
“They are very respectful fans. I mean, I think that they’re; they come right up and be very close to you while you’re doing a close-up and you don’t even hear or see them so it’s just a different type of atmosphere and a different feeling so it’s more of I guess more of a respect level here than they would if you were shooting in different other places.”

Re: While filming in London what did he miss most about the USA
“Coffee. They really don’t have much good coffee here. I mean, it was good cup of coffee, good cheeseburger. Really good cheeseburger. Nice steak on the grill, you know, American stuff. Can’t really beat.”

Emily Deschanel
Re: Why is “Bones” in London?
“Well I am giving a lecture at Oxford. I have my robes on and my little doctorate hood. I’m giving a lecture at Oxford and I have been invited here by Dr. Ian Wexler, another forensic anthropologist, the top forensic anthropologist in England played by Andrew Buchan and he’s kind of like me in England. So I’m invited here to give a lecture on interstitial lamella remodeling, one of my favorite subjects to speak about, and, and Booth falls asleep while I’m giving my lecture which I don’t appreciate. He comes up and tries to spice things up which he probably does. My lecture’s probably very boring unless you’re in the forensic anthropology field, and so that’s what we’re doing right now. “

Re: Filming in London
“Well it’s very different to shoot in London. You know I mean the crew is different, the way they break up the divisions of every department is different. I’ve been enjoying it just because of the scenery is just you know a lot more impressive than what we have in Los Angeles. Just any corner you go to is pretty interesting architecturally and historically in London. So that’s been a treat.”

Re: Tough filming a the Tower Bridge
“I think the most challenging thing we’ve shot was the Tower Bridge. We had to do a shot, we had one minute to get a shot and no other chance to, to get the shot. We needed the Tower Bridge opening in the background and we knew it opened at a specific time, I think it was 10:00 p.m. and I think we got it.”

Re: Are British fans different than American fans
“I don’t know how they’re different. I mean they just get up closer here. In the States there’s kind of a distance, but we don’t really have people coming up during filming and I think people are really over you know people filming in Los Angeles. No one really cares. Here it’s much more exciting I guess. “

Re: She lived in London when she was a young girl
“Well I lived here when I was a little girl. I lived in London for about a year and went to school here and, and enjoyed it a lot. It’s wonderful to be here and, and see the places that I went to as a girl and, and remembered that and what, how it’s changed and how many things are similar. I mean things don’t change as much here I mean architecturally, architecturally because the buildings are so old. They’re you know not like need to be torn down like they would be in Los Angeles.”