David Boreanaz Reacts to Younger Generations Discovering Bones: ‘The Show Is So Fun!’
David Boreanaz always knew there was a Bones fan base when the forensic drama aired from 2005 to 2017 — but he’s still constantly surprised by how many people are discovering it now that it’s streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.
“I did a LIVE with Kelly and Mark the other day [for the final season of SEAL Team], and these two young girls showed up for a fashion show, literally 10 and 12 years old,” he told PEOPLE.
“Their mom was there, too, and she said they were so excited that I was there because they love Bones, and I just sat there and thought, ‘This is magical!’” Of course, he said it was fun to play FBI Agent Seeley Booth opposite Emily Deschanel’s Temperance “Bones” Brennan, who plays a forensic pathologist.
“Emily Deschanel and I were like, ‘How do we change the spectrum of a half-hour show?’” he said of working closely with his co-stars, noting that they even studied with his acting coach on the weekends.
“You have to make it character-driven,” he said. “You have to talk through dead bodies, tell jokes. You have to get along with each other. And we created something special.”
“I was lucky to be involved. It came back to the consistency, the dedication to taking weekends off, studying with Ivana [Chubbuck], and Emily saying, ‘Okay, I’ll do it with you.’ That was a gift, that was an inspiration. You don’t get that with other actors very often.”
“But that’s how we created that chemistry. It wasn’t just like, ‘Here are the lines, say them. We rewrote a lot of those scenes, we presented them, we played with them inside and out, we added our own subtext.’
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So has he learned anything about forensic science along the way?
“No,” he says. “Emily is forensic science. I’m just the satirical cop with the weird props, and I just go along for the humor.”
He adds, “The show has made me a better artist in a lot of ways. It’s just a fun show.”
Boreanaz, who spoke to PEOPLE this week about wrapping up the seventh and final season of SEAL Team (Aug. 11, Paramount+), said Bones is also very different from his SEAL Team role, which was physically demanding.
David Boreanaz Is Ready to Rest His Body After Wrapping Up SEAL Team: ‘I Had 4 MRIs in 4 Months’ (Exclusive) “I take really good care of myself, but there comes a point where your body doesn’t move the way it used to… I think I’ve had four MRIs in the last four months, for my knees, my hips, my shoulders. It’s been a long journey,” he said of why he wants to end the series. For more on David Boreanaz, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. For someone who’s been on TV for 27 straight years (he played Buffy’s love interest Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2003 and starred in the spinoff Angel from 1999 to 2004), he says there are things in the works—but he can’t talk about them just yet. “I have a plan,” he said. “My work ethic has always been to stay focused, live in the moment, don’t look back, don’t look too far into the future.”
The first two episodes of SEAL Team’s final season will premiere on Sunday, August 11, with the remaining episodes airing weekly on Paramount+.
