David Boreanaz on Ending, ‘Bones’ Revival

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for the series finale of “SEAL Team,” now streaming on Paramount+.

In 1993, David Boreanaz landed a guest spot on an episode of the Fox sitcom “Married… With Children,” in which he played Christina Applegate’s unfaithful biker boyfriend. While that role didn’t evolve into his getting more episodes, Boreanaz, who began his career primarily as a background player, got his first real taste of working on-camera — and that adrenaline rush was enough to keep him pounding the pavement as a struggling actor in Los Angeles.

A few years later, Boreanaz was walking his dog when he was scouted by a manager who got him into an audition for vampire P.I. Angel on The WB supernatural drama “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” With the show already in production, the producers were desperately looking for a charismatic, sardonic leading man to go up against Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy Summers.

“I owe a lot to Sarah for her patience, and obviously the draw of our chemistry was a big part of that show’s success in the beginning. It was very ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Boreanaz tells Variety of the sustained success of “Buffy,” which resulted in his own eponymous spinoff, “Angel.” “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t thank that I was able to walk my dog, which allowed me to get my manager, which propelled me to a meeting that really was a pathway and a start of something.”

For the better part of the last three decades, Boreanaz has become a staple on TV. After “Buffy” and “Angel,” which arguably spawned a generation of vampire shows, he played FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth opposite Emily Deschanel’s forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, for 12 seasons on “Bones,” which is still Fox’s longest-running hour-long drama series. He then followed that up with a starring and executive producing role in the gritty military drama “SEAL Team,” which on Oct. 6 wrapped up its impressive seven-season run on Paramount+ (after first premiering on CBS).

While taking a break from visiting the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. — which is part of his ambassadorial work with the United States Organizations — Boreanaz discusses the end of “SEAL Team,” the key to his longevity in Hollywood — and why he would easily “consider” reprising his role in a “Bones” revival.

So much of Master Chief Jason Hayes’ arc in the final season of “SEAL Team” boils down to the inner turmoil that he feels over his first kill, and the moral implications of his work as a Navy SEAL. In the finale, he decides to go back to Afghanistan to meet the family of the first man he killed in the war. How did you and the rest of the creative team arrive at this conclusion for your character?

I always go back to the fact that the authenticity of the show lies within the characters’ drive to make the story move. Especially for “SEAL Team,” it was pivotal for us to be able to find that balance between the missions, the altercations and complications of those missions —but most importantly, the balance back home and what that means. He was so imbalanced for so many seasons; some seasons, he was thinking that he did have a grasp on it. This season, in particular, he was feeling as though he could find happiness, and slowly, the traumas and the nightmares were making it more evident that he was just causing more problems and issues, and feeling guilty about that.

So him actually going back to Afghanistan and visiting the family of his first kill, I guess, does alleviate some of that pain, but also opens up a place for him to understand that this is not a pattern for him anymore. Ultimately, for me, it was about finding the spiral moment for the character. Jason has been chasing his tail for seven seasons, and it felt right for him to find the spiral event that could take him in and take him out in an effective, healthier way than the way he was already doing it. I think it was a beautiful touch to put that on the character.

Was there ever any doubt in your mind that Jason would survive the final season? Did you or the rest of the producers ever toy with the idea of killing him off?

We played with the idea in one season where he is taking more of a command in the HAVOC [control] room and trying to feel what that would feel like. Personally, for me to put the character in that situation, I didn’t feel that it made sense. I think it would be more awkward and a little bit more fish out of water. I mean, Master Chief wouldn’t really be a fish out of water, but for that situation it’d be boring. The real essence of the guy is, he would somewhat break the rules. In the open sequence of the pilot, he’d go to the other room, get the files, jump off and almost be killed. He always put himself in that situation and made a narrowing escape. That’s who he is, and I’m glad that we stuck with that.

As far as discussing if he would actually be killed, it crossed my mind at the end of Season 4, where I was just like, “Maybe we should just kill him off, and end it.” Because it made sense to not complete that other traumatic event that these guys suffer from, I think I would be doing the role an injustice [if we had killed him]. Going into the season, before the writers strike, I had proclaimed that this would be it for me. It wasn’t something that was thrown upon us. For me, it was pretty well-known, and because of this storyline and examining that third kind of trauma [after post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury], I knew I was doing the character justice. 

What do you hope the legacy of “SEAL Team” will be, as far as the way it has attempted to advance conversations around mental health for military families?

Obviously, the mental health sector is something that I am extremely involved in — and getting even more involved into — as far as finding the help that people need, whether they’re suffering from anxiety or depression. How do you deal with certain remedies for that? How do you understand the pharmaceutical companies’ urge to push certain prescriptions on people just for financial gain? What’s going on with the FDA? What’s going on with our food? How does it affect mental health progress?

There’s so many avenues and lights that you can shine a light upon, and I just look forward to getting into more stories about those issues because mental health surrounds all these characters. I see it now even in Annapolis with these young students and these plebes and what they have to deal with for a whole year. You look at the horrific suicide rate on a base like Quantico, and that’s something that they deal with on a daily basis. So I think that shining a light on that will help the next person.

I know our show has done that, because I get responses from people reaching out saying, “Thank you for your show. I was going to kill myself. I watched it in a moment that helped me call out for help, and you saved my life.” That, in itself, is the biggest award I can get for a show like this. I’m so happy and pleased that we hit that mark, and the show will live on like that. It’s a very underrated show, I feel. It’s a show that was displaced on a network, that moved over to Paramount+, [which] gave us the freedom to show even more. But it’s definitely a type of show that has its end.

You rose to fame on network television, and people tend to have a different connection with you depending on which character they saw you play first. When people recognize you in public, what are they most likely to know you from, and what do they typically say to you?

It ranges. Obviously, the cult shows [“Buffy” and “Angel”], I was blessed to be able to work with such fabulous writers and shoot shows that were very technically challenging at that time with greenscreen and wire work. It was a breakout role that would define the next step for me, in the learning of the acting process.

“Bones” was so experimental. People come up and say, “I became an anthropologist because of your show.” I know that our show defined procedurals in a different way when we were in our fourth or fifth season, because we kept pushing the character work and you could slowly see those other shows become more character-driven and not so plot heavy. So, we prided ourselves in being consistent with that work and taking that leap of faith, knowing that, at first, the networks were going to be like, “Oh, you can’t do that! Booth can’t wear Converse sneakers. Why are you wearing socks that are crazy? What are you doing with pens that undress themselves?” It’s very easy to say, “Oh, I’ll stop. I’ll stay in line.” As an artist, you have to stretch and take a chance. I was consistent with that — and then they embraced it. They were doing marketing campaigns with my shoes off and colorful socks!

Being embraced by this wonderful “SEAL Team” community, I’ve had people come up and say, “Thank you.” I was walking the hallways of the Pentagon on Tuesday, and it was fascinating to watch them turn and say, “Oh, Master Chief Hayes! Master Hayes! I love that show for what it is and how authentic it can be.” That’s the biggest compliment I could have received in the Pentagon — that we stuck to our guns, we found the balance, we showed the pain, we had the verbiage, we had the outfits correct. So people see me for a lot of characters. Oh, [I’ve even been recognized for] “Family Guy”! I get a lot of crazy ones, man.

You and Emily Deschanel broke the mold of the procedural drama on “Bones,” and the palpable connection between your characters is one of the reasons people continue to revisit the show, myself included. What do you think were the keys to building and sustaining your chemistry with her across all 12 seasons?

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 [Ivana Chubbuck], who I think is the best and can offer some connection for the two of us,” is the start. 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.

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. It really bonded us, and as much pushback as we may have gotten from the network at certain times, we continued to do it. 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. 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. 

What do you miss most about working with Emily?

I miss her sunshine, her smile, her will to stretch the boundaries of a scene. I remember showing up one day on set early on, and I was upset about something. We kind of went at each other in a way that was healthy, but at the same time, we were like, “All right, we’re not always going to have great days. We’re going to agree to disagree. We’re going to stick to the work.” And I’m going to be able to say, “You know what, Emily? I’m having a bad day. Don’t take it personally.” And Emily would say, “David, I’m having a bad day. Don’t take it personally. I love you. Let’s go on.” From that moment on, it was glorious.  What’s great about her is that she’s so willing to do the work, and be there for you. That’s what I miss so much about her. I don’t think I ever got mad at Emily. That’s just an energy thing, and I miss her so much. I speak very fondly of her, and we still talk.

There have been conversations about stepping back [into those roles] and doing a sequence of the show somewhere — which is an easy show to recreate. It’s not rocket science, right? It’s something that you can just jump in and out of, which would be fun to do. Being in Quantico and at the actual FBI recently, I was like, “I’m home! Booth is home!” What you could do and start from there alone would be great. I was walking Quantico and the FBI, and I was like, ”Imagine doing this great walk-and-talk here and having to find a body where the FBI is. That’d be hilarious!” So you never know …

Like Emily, I was surprised to hear recently that you would want to participate in a revival of “Bones,” only because you spent so many years saying that you would prefer to look forward rather than go back. What exactly has changed?

Nothing’s really changed. 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.

Where do you think Booth and Brennan would be now?

Booth probably would be getting honored in Quantico, at the actual FBI. We would have a daughter who was at least 15, 16. She’d be entering college, probably studying the tactics of wanting to be an FBI agent, which would drive her mother crazy. And maybe she changes course and has a forensic anthropology class within that study of becoming an FBI agent. Who knows?

I think Booth is not really active and retired, and has to be drawn back into a case, to solve something that happened on the grounds of the FBI. I think Brennan just keeps writing books and getting accolades. She’d be on the New York Times bestsellers lists, probably finishing another book tour, and she’s in the middle of the book tour and has to get to the FBI in light of this award that I’m getting. And then shit hits the fan. I can see it, man!

This sounds like the start of a great pitch for a revival to me!

It’s just a great storyline, man. It’d be hilarious. My daughter could actually be actively training at the FBI, which would be kind of funny.

Emily recently launched a “Bones” rewatch podcast with your former co-star Carla Gallo, who played Daisy Wick. Can we expect you to be a guest on an episode in the near future, or would you prefer to chat with them later down the line?

I don’t know. I’ll see how I feel. Emily will call me and say, “Oh, I want you to do this. Are you available?” That’s what’s so stubborn about me — I can’t give a date down the line, let alone know what I’m doing tomorrow. Some people get it; some people don’t, and it frustrates the hell out of them. It’s hard for me to give a specific date on when I’m going to do it.

You began your TV career with a guest spot on “Married… With Children” in 1993, and now you’ve starred in over 500 episodes across four different shows. What are your biggest takeaways from all the time you’ve spent in the business?

I just remember how gracious and kind Ed O’Neill was, and how later on, when I saw him on a vacation spot, I sat and had coffee with him, and I listened to him just talk about himself, which is hilarious and educational. It’s just about the people that you meet along the way — the great actors, showrunners, directors, producers. Man, my Rolodex is times-10,000, in a way that is now usable. I can learn what to do and what not to do, and shape that in the way that I would like to do things.

Being an executive producer on “SEAL Team” and being a director and managing and understanding budgets — where we’re shooting, locations, how to get people in and out — I love all of it, and I’m fortunate to be able to have been a part of it for so long that now it’s like, “Oh, the masterclass is over. Let’s start to really sing now.” 

You’re one of the few non-daytime actors who has been able to work consistently for almost three decades, and, from what you just told me, you don’t seem to show any signs of slowing down. What has been the key to your longevity?

I know for a fact it’s my work with Ivana. That, for me, is stretching muscles that are needed. I’m really high on doing a play right now for a limited run because of the type of character that it is in the fabric of my soul right now. I can’t say 20 or 10 years ago, “I’d like to do this portrayal of a play,” because it was a cachet thing. What I’ve really learned from “SEAL Team” is if it’s not authentic, then it’s not true to yourself. If it’s not true to yourself, you can’t find silence. If you can’t find silence, you can’t find the core of the character. And if you can’t find the core of the character, what are you doing? I’m just learning this.

Cillian Murphy says, “Well, it takes 35 years to become an actor.” Look, I’m just starting. I’m understanding that silence, I’m understanding that authenticity, and I revel in it. I revel in the fact that we shot “SEAL Team” in a documentary way. We shot it anamorphic, we stayed with the SEALs, and that brought out so much emotion. I just feel like that’s the only way to do it. I don’t know any other way. I really don’t. So, the core, for me, is just hard work. It’s living in the now, getting up and doing the things that you don’t want to do, getting in the gym physically, getting your mind correct, working with the ways that you need to work to become authentic. 

You told Variety at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in June that you are writing a series that you could also star in and produce.

I am a stubborn Taurian, so living in the now means I’m focused on what’s going on now. The projects that I currently have were manifested four years ago. Someone says, “Hey, you have this string of working.” And I’m like, “It’s not that I look at the string of the work. I have to be like, ‘Where do I want to continue to grow as an artist?’” “SEAL Team” has allowed me to understand that dedication to get it done in a whole different manner. So, yeah, there’s a lot going on right now. I’m healing, obviously. It’s been a tough grind, and I’ve got some really great things that are happening right now. Those fruits will soon be heard of, I guess.

I don’t want to give away things, but I will say this: It’s paying homage and a love story to those local mom-and-pop shops, and what they’re all about. And when I say local, they’re the heartbeat of America, the heartbeat of the fabric of our society. [It’s about how] the simple things in life have been taken for granted, and if they’re not preserved or told about, they will be gone. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.