Emily Deschanel in "The Loyalty in the Lie"

Question: When people meet you, do they expect you to be like Brennan and know medical stuff?

Emily Deschanel: Of course, I'm brilliant just like my character. [laughing] People call me by my character's name all time. They call me Bones or Dr. Brennan. My favorite is when people in Spain call me Dr. Brennan (with a Spanish accent). Sometimes people think I know medical stuff, beyond bones. They assume I know everything in the human body, which I obviously do not. But I think mostly people are pretty savvy. I don't get that many people thinking I'll be able to solve a murder or operate on somebody. There are a few people -- I guess I'm that convincing -- who believe I'm really like that.

Michael Peterson: Emily, one more favorite story that Hart [Hanson] has ever told me is that one day his dad came to set and watched you doing a line. He was just enamored with how you delivered it, and he looked to Hart and said, "Where does she come up with this stuff?" Which is pretty fantastic to say that to the writer.

Emily Deschanel: I'm sure so hard for him to hear, because he's the one who comes up with all the words.

Michael Peterson: He thought it was hysterical.

Emily Deschanel: I'll take all the credit. [laughing]

Question: After 11 seasons, what's something that you've learned scientifically or medically that you found really interesting?

Emily Deschanel: Oh, my god, there's so many things. Of course, the minute you ask me that I have no idea. I can't remember one thing. [laughs] I certainly know the skeletal system a lot better than I ever have. I couldn't point out all the wrist bones exactly -- which is which and where they go on the wrist. There's trivia and information that we would just get from dialogue, as far as the science that we have to study and talk about on the show in order to film it. Yes, lots, but I can't think of one particular, specific instance of something that comes to mind. I have mommy brain. I feel like I learn my lines and I learn new things and I'm like "Oh, that's interesting." And then I'll forget it the next day. I'm always learning new things but I can't retain them.

Question: Do you find that your everyday life affects Brennan and that she affects you?

Emily Deschanel: I think absolutely. It's hard to be on set for so many hours a day for 10 months of the year -- or whatever we do -- and not have the actor leak into the character and vice versa. I think my husband would tell you I've definitely taken on some qualities of Brennan, but then he didn't really start dating me until after I started the show, so maybe he just thinks they're from Brennan. There are certain things we have similarities -- I take things literally, just like Brennan. I don't follow metaphors very well. I like practical things. Sometimes the way I'll phrase things sound like Brennan. I don't know. You'll see different sides of Brennan in me from day to day and vice versa. I think Brennan has softened a bit. Over the years we've probably met in the middle somewhere. [laughing] I've hardened, she's softened -- and now we're kind of the same person. I don't know. Not quite that. [laughing]

 David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel in "The Loyalty in the Lie"

Question: Will you focus more on Booth and Brennan again this season?

Michael Peterson: That was definitely the focus coming into this season. When Jon Collier and I met with David [Boreanaz] and Emily, our focus 100% is making sure to have as much time as possible with Booth and Brennan. I mean that is the heart of the show. We will challenge ourselves to make sure to give as much screen time as possible. David gave us a note early on. He said to go back and watch early seasons, like Seasons 1 & 2, and just really kind of see all the interactions that we were able to have early on. It was great! I did! I spent my hiatus watching all these episodes over and over again. It also inspired a lot of storylines. For instance, the pilot talks a lot about the first book that Brennan writes and how it's inspired by each one of the characters on the show. That led to a fun storyline that's coming up I think in Episode 4 where there's a twist in Brennan's latest novel that is a sharp departure but leads to some pretty good back and forth between Booth and Brennan. It's been fun to rediscover those early seasons and then really having it reflect in this season.

Question: How is Booth and Brennan's life going to change now that they have a second child?

Michael Peterson: Emily and I, we were very smart in preparation for this. Emily obviously had her second child and I had mine also over the hiatus. We're hoping that real life will inspire us. But, yeah, it's totally different -- one [child] vs. two. Right away you're going to see some of that, and there's a sweetness that comes -- I think it's the third episode. We see in the first two episodes the death of [spoiler removed -- but it's not a series regular and not a child]. It's a nice little emotional conclusion to that. I'm hoping that my little one will inspire many great stories. Emily and I will be comparing notes all year and we'll see what we come with.

 Kim Raver and Emily Deschanel in "The Brother in the Basement"

Question: By the end of Episode 2, Brennan seems fine that Booth has basically lied, perhaps, to her about [removed spoiler]. Is that the end of that or will there be ramifications, especially coming off the gambling storyline last season?

Emily Deschanel: That's such a big thing. Michael, you can probably answer that question better.

Michael Peterson: We'll go into it some, but last year was very specific -- Booth lying about gambling -- versus what happens this year. I think if it had just been a one parter and [removed spoiler], then I think Brennan would have hit him a lot harder, as far as accusations. But through the course of the second episode what we're trying to get to is that she understands who she is better through this case -- that she belongs at the lab. In a way, through discovering where she belongs, she also understands Booth better -- that Booth is this man of action. The way we say internally here is that Booth is little bit of Superman. Superman just can't sit by and watch as people suffer. There really is no retiring for him, so by the end of the second episode, Brennan understands that she belongs in the lab and that her Superman, Booth, belongs out there in the field saving people. She understands him in a way that probably nobody else could. While a lot of people would yell at him saying "You lied to me," she understands it's just who he is. And she wouldn't want him to be any other way.

Question: What was it like working with Kim Raver with a character like that, who was willing to question and challenge Booth?

Emily Deschanel: I've been a fan of her work for a long time. She went to Boston University, where I went [Emily graduated with a CFA in 1998 and Kim earned a CGA in 1987 and CFA in 1991], so I've just been following her. I was very excited to work with her personally, and she's a delight, so that was wonderful. It was cool to have a character who challenges Booth and his motives and is really suspicious of him. It's interesting to come up against that, because all of our characters do recognize Booth as the good man that he is -- and the hero at times -- so it's interesting to have a dynamic like that where somebody comes from a totally different perspective. We're almost in a way having to defend him and what he's done and what he does and the choices that he makes. It definitely added an interesting dynamic to the beginning of the season.

Question: What was it like to work with Betty White [who will guest star as Dr. Beth Mayer on BONES this season]?

Emily Deschanel: She's amazing. It was a dream come true working with her. She's 93 years old and came in and was so professional. She knew her lines. She was just so lovely to talk to. She's just a jokester. She's making all these jokes and everyone's running to her and she's laughing. It was a dream come true to work with her. We had Cyndi Lauper, Betty White -- these people I adored when I was much younger and it's so much fun to get to meet these people in person. Also, they don't disappoint, in terms of their kindness and personality. It was a great joy to have her on set. I hope we bring back Dr. Beth Mayer, the forensic anthropologist, to be an intern. It was fun to also have a rivalry with her, which we kind of do have on the show. It's a lot of fun.

 Michaela Conlin and TJ Thyne in "The Loyalty in the Lie"

Question: Are there any major story arcs this season that will span multiple episodes?

Michael Peterson: There'll be quite a few. For Cam and Arastoo, we'll be following their relationship very closely after what goes down in the first two episodes. Also, Hodgins and Angela in Episode 10, there will be a major shakeup for them -- and it's also going to be related to Aubrey. That's our mid-season finale. It's an episode we were originally considering for the season opener. We were going to start with a quite literal bang, but that episode will be very interesting as far as how it will change the trajectory of the rest of the season. When Jon Collier and I were handed this gift to work on the show and be able to be showrunners this year, we wanted to make sure that we shook things up. I think there's going to be many, many major arcs. We don't want to get complacent in the fact that Booth and Brennan are married and everyone's coupled up. We want to challenge them, but not in any kind of artificial way. We want it to be character-led. So we're going to have lots of arcs for each of the people this season.

Question: What kind of big bads are Booth and Brennan going to face this season?

Michael Peterson: Obviously, there's the SLEEPY HOLLOW episode, so that's a very interesting version of a big bad. In that one we're going to find two sets of remains -- one of them is going to be very, very old and that's going to be a big bad from the SLEEPY HOLLOW universe. That's going to be interesting in itself. Season 10 is probably going to be the biggest bad we're going to come across, but I really don't want to give too much away there. It's something that's going to impact Hodgins, Angela and Aubrey very, very directly.

Emily Deschanel: I don't know the term 'big bad,' so this is new to me. I'm going to google this right now.

 Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in "The Donor in the Drink"

Question: Emily, how long did it take to build a friendship with David Boreanaz that carried over on screen?

Emily Deschanel: Ten years, I guess. [laughing] That's always a focus of ours. For maybe six seasons, we would always work together on the weekends. Building our chemistry has always been a focus of ours for our performances. I think that kind of commitment to the work in that way and to our characters and to the relationship -- we made that a priority. On screen and off, it's been important for us to get along and to build our chemistry on camera. If you see chemistry, it's not just an accident. We worked on that. But, you know, it's not that hard to have chemistry with David Boreanaz. [laughing]

 Emily Deschanel in "The Double Trouble in the Panhandle"

Question: Which has been your favorite undercover episode? Will there be one in Season 11?

Emily Deschanel: I love the circus episode. That's probably my favorite undercover episode. It was a lot of fun to do and dress up. I had to kind of learn how to tightrope walk. It wasn't actually me tightrope walking up above really high, but I got to do it down low on a much lower wire, which was a lot of fun, for filming closing shots. I actually hit my eye in real life and I have a bruised eyeball, and so we had to think of a way of covering that in that episode so I got an eyepatch. It's just a crazy fun episode where we had to be on our toes and change things around all the time, so that was a lot of fun for me. I have a lot of favorite episodes, but that's my favorite undercover episode for sure.

Michael Peterson: Emily will definitely be going undercover again this season. I think it's going to be so good that maybe next year she'll change her answer so far as what her favorite undercover episode is. We got a good one. One of our former writers, Karine Rosenthal, is coming in to guest-write one for us. She's fantastic. It's going to be a different version of undercover than we've ever done before. It's going to be very playful and competitive. It's unlike any undercover that we've done before, so we're very excited. I think that's going to be 11 and up [after the mid-season finale].

 Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz in "The Mystery in the Meat"

Question: Will there be any stories inspired by real events this season?

Michael Peterson: We're always looking. Obviously, we read a ton and look for inspiration anywhere we can. Hart Hanson actually emailed us recently, asking whether or not we thought there was any kind of storyline with the young child in Texas [teen Ahmed Mohamed] who got arrested over building a clock. That story's very much in the BONES wheelhouse, but we haven't developed story yet for that -- but it certainly could be a possibilty down the line. We look everywhere. I've got all my Google alerts that are setup for body finds and stuff like that. It gets a little morbid sometimes. We also have the bad habit that when we write something, then it actually does happen in real life. There's one episode where a person was canned, and then shortly after writing it somebody died -- I think it was at the Bumble Bee tuna factory -- and was canned. Sometimes it goes the reverse of that -- and it's horrifying -- which led us to write a lottery episode, hoping that if we write it and it happens, we can win the lottery. Sadly, that did not happen.

 TJ Thyne and Emily Deschanel in "The Loyalty in the Lie"

Question: The ways people watch television have changed since BONES started. How has that affected the show this season?

Michael Peterson: The quality of TV is fantastic right now and you want to keep up with all of the great shows -- your MAD MEN and GAME OF THRONES. Since THE SOPRANOS, the bar has been raised, and you want to bring better and better work all the time. So that's the first thing. Secondly, there are just subtle differences. We were cutting a show recently and the transitions between acts I think are, for instance, a little more subtle because people are now going to watch thing without commercials. You want to make sure that it plays well for those people as well as somebody who's watching with a 3-minute interruption. You want to cut the shows just slightly different so that it's seamless if you're streaming or works with a break in between it. That's probably the biggest thing that I've noticed is that we edit it just a little bit different because of that. Back in the day you'd almost have like a recap to remind people what happened in between the 3 minutes of commercial air time, and now it's just got to be a lot more continuous.