This Is How Emily Deschanel Really Feels About Bones

Fox's long-running, offbeat procedural drama Bones more frequently played the part of network underdog than runaway hit. In spite of some behind-the-scenes drama and a perpetually shuffled time slot, Bones always seemed to deliver viewership just worthy enough of renewal with a small but fiercely devoted fanbase devouring the show's twisted tales of a brilliant forensic anthropologist (Emily Deschanel) solving grisly murders alongside a cocky F.B.I. Agent (David Boreanaz). And so, Bones ran for 12 full seasons before leaving the airwaves forever in 2017.   

Over that period, the series made a legit star out of then up-and-comer Deschanel who, prior to claiming the role of Dr. Temperance Brennen on Bones, was probably best known as the snarky receptionist who refused to pay Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) for those late pizzas in 2004's Spider-Man 2. When Bones hit the airwaves in the fall of 2005, it proved Deschanel to be a major screen talent with wit and charisma to burn. 

Those attributes were often buried under the exterior of Dr. Brennan's crackling intellect and standoffish facade. And balancing Brennan's beneath the surface charm and outward intellectual smarm put Deschanel's talent to the test, with the actor delivering career-defining work. Seems there was one element on Bones, however, that tested Deschanel even more than humanizing the endlessly egotistical Brennan. And as much affection as the actor clearly has for Bones, the show apparently grossed her out on the regular.         

Gory special effects were very much a part of most Bones narratives, with Brennan and her Jeffersonian team frequently picking through charred, decomposed, bug-ridden, and even liquified human remains in their investigations. While that would seem to leave little room for the squeamish in the series' cast, the star of the show didn't enjoy the carnage nearly as much as her on screen counterpart. In fact, Deschanel claimed in a 2016 Today Show interview that some of the show's freakier flights of gory fancy really got to her.

Surprisingly, Deschanel wasn't turned off by the rotting corpses being carted back and forth to the Bones set week to week. As the actor noted in that interview, it was mostly the "weird" things on Bones that got under her skin, "I get grossed out by weird things." Deschanel then spoke briefly about one of the more unexpected twists that really gave her the creeps: "There was an episode where there was coral in the bone, and that freaked me out. Stuff like that freaks me out."

Deschanel didn't explicitly detail what exactly about that "coral in the bone" twist set her off, simply noting the "porousness" of the element unnerved her. As for the parade of graphically decomposed corpses the good doctor and her crack team of "Squints" handled on a weekly basis, Deschanel had less of an issue with them stating, "These disgusting bodies, I show up and eat my lunch over and it's not a big deal." And yes, that's a very Brennan thing to do.