Articles & Interviews 2008

BU to Hollywood

Online article from 2008 from Boston University featuring successful graduates.

Link: http://www.bu.edu/today/node/6696


BU to Hollywood: From Bit Parts to TV's Bones

Part three: Emily Deschanel (CFA'98) takes a clear-eyed approach to work, fame, and gory props
By Jenny Brown


Imagine going to work each day and facing flesh-eating bugs, murder scenes, and decomposing bodies. As Temperance “Bones” Brennan, a forensic anthropologist teamed up with an FBI detective played by David Boreanaz on Fox TV’s Bones, that’s exactly what actress Emily Deschanel has to do. But the gore doesn’t faze her. “You just get used to coming into work and seeing decomposed human remains every day,” she says nonchalantly. “Instead of being grossed out by it, I have turned it into a fascination with the human body and the whole design of the skeleton.”

That pretty much sums up Deschanel (CFA’98): optimistic and upbeat. She’s one of those rarities, a native of L.A., and — perhaps even more rare — a grounded one at that. Acting is a job, and a day on the set of Bones is just another day at work. Sure, she gets to hang out all day with a handsome coworker. Yes, she appears every week in homes across the country. Granted, there are fan sites springing up across the Web. But, she says, “I still live my life the way I’ve always lived it.”

At the beginning of her career, Deschanel had small parts in big films; her first role was as a paint-throwing fur activist in 1994’s It Could Happen to You. She had a minor part in Cold Mountain and played a receptionist in Spider-Man 2.

The Disney film Glory Road (2006) opened the doors for her to a starring role. After working on the film, she was recommended by a Disney executive as a possible lead for Bones. “So I met with Hart Hanson, the creator of the show, and Barry Josephson, the other executive producer, and the director,” Deschanel says. “I just remember Hart laughing at really-not-funny jokes I was telling, and thinking, he’s a really nice guy, because I’m not funny at all right now.”

Landing a good role is a highly competitive process (“They make you jump through hoops,” she says). She made it through the initial round and was called in to test for the role. “There was just one other girl who was testing, and she was reading with David Boreanaz and I walked in the room. It can be kind of awkward and weird, but you get used to doing that as an actor. You get used to testing and not getting roles. You go in and you do your thing, and then it’s not in your hands and you have to walk away as best you can.”

She got the part, but she had her doubts. “I didn’t know anything about forensic anthropology, and it seemed very limited. I didn’t think you could do a whole show based on bones.” Three years later, she’s learned she was wrong. The amusing procedural has her plunging stubbornly into the toughest of cases, with no shortage of plot lines. (The role is based on real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs, who writes the book series.)

Despite her relatively sudden fame, everyday life in her hometown is the same as ever. It’s only when she travels that she realizes how different things are. “When I visited my grandparents in Portland, Oreg. — you just go grocery shopping and people call you Bones and Dr. Brennan. You don’t know how to respond to that. Do you say, ‘Yes’ or ‘Not really’?”

'Bones' star Emily Deschanel just wants to have fun
Updated 5/9/2008 2:42 PM

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-05-08-deschanel_N.htm

By William Keck, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — As she does most every weekend, Bones star Emily Deschanel is spending her Sunday morning shopping at a Hollywood farmers' market near her home.
A strict vegan, she has avoided all animal products for 15 years, ever since watching a documentary about the meat industry. Her lifestyle extends to avoiding leather clothing or consuming even honey because "sometimes," she says, "they kill the bees." As a result, she is forced to forgo many samples along the route.

But Deschanel's icy character, forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan, has no problem interacting with freshly butchered bodies on the Fox crime drama. With two episodes remaining in the third season (Mondays, 8 p.m. ET/PT), Deschanel hints that viewers will soon learn the shocking identity of cannibalistic serial killer Gormogon's apprentice.

She and her on-screen crime-solving partner, David Boreanaz (FBI Agent Booth), were named producers on the show this season, which has upped their creative input.

"David had it in his contract, and I think they wanted to do something to make me feel equal with him, which is nice," she explains. "We're definitely more involved in the show and where it goes … if there are story lines or plot points we feel aren't right for the characters."

But Deschanel insists she had nothing to do with Monday's episode, which finds her providing some comic relief. Former American Idol finalists Ace Young and Brandon Rogers guest-star in a story line that culminates with Deschanel singing a Cyndi Lauper standard. Though she can carry a tune, the actress, 31, hasn't performed much before an audience since grade-school productions of The Mikado and Into the Woods.

That playful side is more akin to her own personality, and the market experience does bring out her inner child.

Realizing she has left her environmentally friendly shopping bag in her car, she makes a mad dash back and returns. Out of breath, she apologizes for taking so long, having run into a few friends along the way.

"I love the atmosphere here," Deschanel says, filling her bag with avocados. "I make a good guacamole, if I do say so myself."

At the end of one street, she spots a friend selling some Play-Doh-like Eco-Dough and picks up a complete set for a friend's child.

Reaching her favorite vegan soul food stand, she orders a to-go plate of veggie pot roast, greens, cornbread and black-eyed peas that she will take home to the duplex she shares with her vegetarian kid sister, Zooey, 28, also an actress (Elf).

Later in the afternoon, she and her boyfriend are taking a Jewish food cooking class. She declines to name her beau, explaining: "The last time I talked about my (ex) boyfriend, we had broken up by the time the article came out."

She's far more comfortable discussing her unique relationship with Boreanaz. "We drive each other crazy," she says. "I'm such a nosy person that I need to get in there when he's having a conversation with the director. But we laugh about it."

He's "like a kid," she says. "He'll take down his pants and moon people." And, "He'll try to kiss me and stuff, and I'll be like, 'Uhhhh!' "

Having a co-worker try to kiss you? For Deschanel, that's worse than a bloody body any day.