TVSquad

Admit it: You all want to know what's like to talk to David Boreanaz, AKA, Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, AKA, Special Agent Seeley Booth from Bones. I'd like to know what it is like to talk to him too, but one of the things about these conference calls is that you are instructed to hit two keys to queue up for your question, and I always hit them, but I never get selected to ask questions.

I do, however, now know what it is like to listen to David Boreanaz talk on the phone, so I guess that's something, right? He sounds just like Booth. Go figure. If you are a longterm fan of Boreanaz, I'd have to guess that either he did the phone call in character as Booth or that Boreanaz is a lot more like the sometimes-abrasive Booth than the brooding and circumspect Angel.

On the whole Boreanaz gave stock answers to questions. He was friendly and joked about Celebrity Football predictions and sports: he was on the phone in New York City at the NHL building during the call. However, one caller made the mistake of hearing that, because of Bones moving to Monday nights on FOX at 8 PM ET, Bones was a "bubble" show, which I guess is industry-speak for the show being on the verge of cancellation. Boreanaz zeroed in on the guy like he was a murder suspect on Bones: "Where did you hear that? No, wait a minute, you can't just throw something like that out there and then tell me you don't remember where you heard it. That would be like me saying, 'Hey, I heard your column is canceled, but I don't know where I heard that." He continued to challenge the fellow's professionalism in reporting a rumor without a solid source for it, while the guy stammered that he reads from a lot of different sources.

During the grilling, I thought, "Damn, Boreanaz is kind of a dick." But he was absolutely right: The guy should have known where he heard it before broaching the subject during an interview with an actor on the show. Live and learn. I know that not all of us calling in are professional journalists -- some of us sit around in our pajamas and blog -- but it was still a good lesson. The caller apologized profusely and then Boreanaz returned to his charm and told the guy it was okay, that he had just had an interview with Dave Schultz, so he was all fired up.

Boreanaz also reported that all of Booth's characterizations come directly from him, rather than the writing, including the belt buckles, socks, and flashy ties. He said that apart from procedures involving guns or entering buildings, which he aims to do flawlessly and as much like the FBI as possible, he has tossed out the rulebook regarding FBI personalities, and emphasizes Booth's military and blue collar background as much as possible.

Regarding talk of the strike and the show's move to a different time slot, Boreanaz towed the party line of, "I am an actor. I'm not involved in those decisions." I get the impression that his role as a producer on the show is much more along the lines of creative input and control about his character and how much he is allowed to improv than it is about the actual production of the show itself.

He said about the now infamous kiss from "The Santa in the Slush" episode that he liked the fact that the kiss was a dare, really, that Caroline Julian put them up to. However, it would also serve to bring the characters closer because they would know that the kiss had happened.

Boreanaz foresees some episodes occurring in England, with a possible return of Stephen Fry's therapist character. He will also take the opportunity to direct at some point, and he said, "I have also put the pen to paper, and done some writing." He thinks if opportunities for actors to direct arise, artists have to take advantage of them.

Interestingly, the season finale, which will be a two-part cliffhanger, has already been filmed and was filmed, in fact, before the writer's strike. I got the impression that more is being added, though, because of adjustments to the Widow's Son storyline that had to be made due to time restrictions from the strike.

Bones returns on Monday April 14 (thanks, Vince!), with 6 more episodes for the season.