The Real Reason Bones Was So Successful, According To David Boreanaz

Even though it ended in 2017 after twelve seasons, “Bones” is still a seriously popular procedural series, drawing new audiences on streaming services and remaining completely rewatchable after all these years. So what’s the secret to the show’s success? Star David Boreanaz thinks he knows the answer — and it has everything to do with his acting teacher, Ivana Chubbuck.

In an interview with Variety, where Boreanaz also discussed the series finale of “SEAL Team,” the series he led for CBS and Paramount+ until it officially ended on October 6, Boreanaz explained that he and his “Bones” co-star, Emily Deschanel, worked extensively with Chubbuck to perfect their characters (Boreanaz’s FBI agent Seeley Booth and Deschanel’s forensic anthropologist Temperance “Bones” Brennan).

“Being able to go to your co-star and be like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be working on the weekends with my acting teacher, who I think is the best and can offer some connection for the two of us,’ is the start,” Boreanaz said. “That was the inception. I think that it would’ve been a little bit more challenging for me to do it singularly, and then to try to explain all that stuff to the opposing co-star, as well as to the showrunner and to the writers. Then it just becomes a different type of project, right? And that’s tough. So I’m grateful for her grace to accept it and then stick with it for so many years. Out of the 12 or 13 years that we did, it was nine or 10 years solid [where] every weekend, we were rewriting dialogue, doing exercises, finding the space.”

As David Boreanaz told Variety, the work that he and Emily Deschanel did with Ivana Chubbuck was vital to their work on screen together, even though he also said the network wasn’t always happy about their extra-curricular acting lessons. Still, the chemistry between Booth and Bones makes it quite clear that Chubbuck’s training really worked, and as Boreanaz put it, spending time with Chubbuck outside of filming to develop their characters only bonded Boreanaz and Deschanel further.

“Knowing that we’d done the work and we could throw it away — and then you could do that character, and it comes out instinctually — was the tipping point for that show,” Boreanaz pointed out. “It really bonded us, and as much pushback as we may have gotten from the network at certain times, we continued to do it.”

Ultimately, Boreanaz gave the lion’s share of the credit to the two women he worked with the most on “Bones,” and noted that if Deschanel hadn’t been willing to train with Chubbuck, things could have been very different. “Ivana comes up with an amazing toolbox of ideas that is so personable to oneself and the development of the character that you put the two of them in the same room together, and then it starts to become really great,” the actor continued. “You don’t have that if you don’t have Ivana; you don’t have that if Emily doesn’t say yes. So that was a big blessing to get that, and that’s not easy to get.”

So does David Boreanaz think he and Emily Deschanel would be willing to reprise their roles as Booth and Bones for a potential 13th season or other revival of some kind? Both of them have made optimistic and positive comments about the possibility in the years since “Bones” ended (although Boreanaz initially seemed reticent), and in this Variety interview, he said it feels like it could be pretty straightforward to pull together.

“Nothing’s really changed,” Boreanaz said when the Variety writer pointed out that the actor often said he wanted to “look forward” when he was asked about a “Bones” revival, only to change course in recent years. “When I really look at it, it’s the type of show that was so revered and loved, and I don’t want to say mindless, but it’s mindless entertainment when you really think about it. The dynamic between these two characters was really fun to play, and if there’s happiness and joy in it, it would be easy; it wouldn’t be difficult or hard. Obviously, [a revival] would be limited. It wouldn’t be this long, lengthy thing, but also working with her would be great. Trust me: It’s not something that I’m focused on right now in my life where I’m at presently, but it’s the one show that I would consider — and I will say, consider.“

“Bones” is streaming on Hulu now.