With tonight marking the season finale of BONES [8PM FOX and GLOBAL TV in Canada], theTVaddict.com wanted to be sure to remember to post the fantastic chat we had with BONES Star Michaela Conlin a while back. Actually, make that a long while back as this interview actually took place in September. So keep that in mind when I’m asking questions about what’s in store for Angela’s character!
So nice to meet you, I’ve already interviewed T.J. and Eric, the cast of BONES have been so incredibly nice.
Michaela Conlin: We’re very nice in person… but behind closed doors [laughs]
You must have a great time on set.
We do, it’s a really great group. Aside from Tamara who was added after the pilot, we’ve been together since day one.
Before BONES, I remember your work on MDs. Is it at all bizarre to start a series, do so much hard work, hundreds of interviews, only to have the show cancelled so suddenly?
I booked MDs right when I arrived in LA from New York. Then the show went off the air [after ten episodes] which was a really good thing to have happen. You ‘get it’ really early. You don’t waste your money, you don’t hang out with the wrong people. MDs was an amazing cast on ABC on Wednesday night. But you learn that there are so many factors that go into it and it’s a lot of luck. Yeah the show has to be good, but there are a lot of things that have to happen. The country needs to be ready to see what you’re putting out and it’s really hard to predict.
What’s in store for Angela this season?
Lots of sex! [laughs]. Angela is in the process of finding out who her ex-husband is. As you know, as she was about to make it down the aisle we discovered that she had already been married to a mystery man in Fiji. So in order to get married to Hodgins, T.J. Thyne’s character, Angela has to get a divorce. So we’ve hired a private investigator to clear things up.
TJ was so awesome to talk to by the way, my first interview ever.
Oh good, that’s so exciting.
He was worried he talked too much!
Yeah, he likes to talk [laughs].
Fans really think your character’s relationship with Hodgins offers up a nice juxtaposition to Bones and Booth’s will-they-or-won’t-they scenario.
I’ve been stopped about it a lot. Online I think they call us ‘Hodgela’
The combining of names has to go, isn’t it about time to move onto something else? Brangelina, Zefron, it’s getting ridiculous!
Is it really that hard? I think we’re getting lazy!
It’s quite a sad commentary on popular culture.
[Laughs] Well, ‘Hodgela’ is going strong and they’re doing well. They are going to run into some bumps in the road this season.
After-all we want to make sure it looks like a real relationship, not always sunshine and daisies. I think the writers are going to have some external conflicts come in which should be interesting. But there could be a wedding as well, we’ll see…
As an actress, do you take a lot of interest in the show’s ratings?
I’m not going to lie, you definitely look, I always look. This Wednesday morning after we air on Tuesday I’ll look. That said, there are so many things that come into play. The demo, the half hour, all these things that I don’t understand all that much and don’t really matter until I get a phone call that says the show is off the air. Really we don’t have any control over the ratings so I just try and focus on doing the best job I can.
What type of input do you have into your character’s development on screen?
Now that we’re in the third season you can sort of feel a shift in the show. We’ve played these characters for more than fifty episodes and feel like we know these characters better than the writers will ever know them. Hart Hanson is so open to us coming with ideas and suggestions and they [the writers] obviously see what works.
Like with TJ and I, they saw us in the editing room and were like, “Hey, they have something going on there.” 