Michaela Conlin – No Bones About It

By starrymag | January 17, 2014

Q) What are the current projects you are working on?

 

A) I spend quite a lot of time working on the show “Bones.” We shoot until the beginning of May. I just had a movie that went to Sundance this past January, but I’ve been working on “Bones” for almost a year. It’s a full time job, which I am really thrilled about.

 

Q) Please tell us about the premise of your show “Bones” and your character Angela.

 

A) It’s a procedural style show, but there are a lot of character development that happens with everyone at the Jeffersonian. The creators of the show, option the book that Kathy Reichs writes as a forensic anthropologist and decided to do a series based on her stories which involve working with law enforcement and the FBI, solving crimes together. The series really is about her fictionalized world from the book, with an FBI agent and they go into the field and solve crimes. There is lots of interesting stuff! I play a member of her team and her best friend. I’m the computer expert in the lab who is brought bones from the field and is supposed to recreate them and bring them to life. I am to sort of recreate what could have happened with them. I developed really high tech computer programs that kind of recreate what could have happened. We all have different jobs within the lab and that’s mine. 

 

Q) What made you want to be a part of the show?

 

A) Last pilot season, which is a very crazy time for actors (you can read up to five scripts a week) and this is one of the scripts I read. It’s a strange time because you’re not quite sure how a show is going to end up, if it’s going to get picked up. You have to kind of take a chance on everything. I really felt such a strong connection to the character as soon as I read it. I kind of didn’t care about anything else. I felt like that was going to pay off in the end since I connected with it so soon. I don’t think it’s often that you read something that you feel like you can realize utilize yourself and everything you have in bringing something to life that is meaningful to you. So, I really kind of rolled the dice on it and passed on other projects for it without knowing if I was going to get it. It was a big risk and I am thrilled that it has turned out the way it has. It’s a joy to work on!

 

Q) What is your most memorable moment from filming?

 

A) I think it would probably be during the pilot when Angela and Brennan have a scene, which is really just the two of them talking on a bench. It’s kind of a heart-to-heart, but it’s so rare as a woman on a TV series to have a character that has more than one side to her. I remember, in that moment when we’re shooting the pilot, thinking that the scene was just incredibly well written. The women are full and complex. They are not just these kind of mean caricatures of women in an office, they are kind of full, human and honest and they have a very real friendship. I remember we were filming that scene and thinking that it is hard to get a job like this, where you feel like the woman you are portraying is a full human being and she’s not just one thing. She can get mad, she has a sense of humor, she’s really smart and educated and she has opinions. I remember, when we were filming that scene, that it was so nice to have the liberty to show all that.

 

Q) What is it like working with Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz?

 

A) They are wonderful! It’s been such a wonderful thing to get a job that you believe in and it’s even better when you really enjoy the people that you work with. Emily is such a joy! I play her best friend on the show and it’s very easy for me to do that. She is real professional and really a standup person. David’s such a pro and he’s been doing this for such a really long time that I just learn a lot from watching him on set. The other two actors Eric Millegan and TJ Thyne are wonderful. It’s a really good group! I think we all bring really different things to show so we learn a lot from each other, which is great! 

 

Q) Why should viewers take the time to watch “Bones?”

 

A) It’s a great show! It’s so much fun! I think it’s a very fun hour of television. There is nothing on TV like it. It’s such a unique blend of a show where there is a crime, where you kind of have the benefit to solve it with us, but you also can get invested in the characters and the people and what we go through every week (who we’re falling in love with or fighting with). You kind of have the benefit of both of those things and it’s a really unique premise about anthropology. It’s interesting and a fun ride!

Q) You’ve worked with the likes of Adrien Brody, William Fichtner and Robin Tunney. Who would you most like to work with in the future?

 

A) I’d love to work with Tony Collette, Samantha Morton, Amanda Peete and Morgan Freeman. There are so many people! I’d love to work also with Anthony Hopkins! There are just so many people that are so inspiring and it’s really what keeps us all running for that. I’ve gotten to work with Felicity Huffman, Steven Weber and John Hannah. I started on a show that kind of had a lot of really interesting actor. So, I kind of learned out of the gate how they work and it just really stayed with me through everything I’ve done.

 

Q) You’ve consistently worked in serious TV roles within dramas. What is it about this genre that keeps you coming back?

 

A) I am able to play leads, which is not always the case. I’m Asian American and it’s a limited market for us. I think it is expanding and growing, but it’s not an easy thing to get a leading role in a movie as an Asian American woman. It’s very challenging and you’re kind of put into a slot that is small. I feel like in TV I really get to play leads and characters that are really different and interesting. It’s always such a fun ride doing a TV show because you just kind of never know where you are going to end up and you have a lot of input on how a character is going to grow and change. There is no real beginning, middle and end when you are working on a TV series. You have a beginning, but you kind of don’t know when and where you are going to end up. So, I don’t know. I never thought that I’d be working in this medium, but it’s kind of been going that way. I’m thrilled! I’d love to do more features, as well, but it’s been great. I learn so much every day. It’s a great job! 

 

Q) What do you do in your spare time?

 

A) I don’t have very much spare time. I love seeing movies and I love reading. When I am off, I am usually flipping through the paper and trying to get to a movie. I write short stories, as well, which is very challenging. I also like spending time with my friends and family, that’s always so tough when you aren’t on a regular schedule. It’s always changing so I’ve been kind of calling people at the last minute saying, “Hey! I have the afternoon free! Let’s go see a film or let’s go have lunch!” There is not that much time off, but I tend to spend my free time in those ways.

 

Q) What is your latest obsession? A book? A movie? A sport? A band?

 

A) I just read a wonderful book calledPrep that I’ve been mildly obsessed with. It’s by Curtis Sittenfeld and it’s so good! I went traveling over the holidays and I went to Budapest. I am pretty obsessed with traveling, I would say. I would like to go to Asia soon. I really find that getting that far away gives me a lot of perspective on working in this field here in Los Angeles.

 

Q) What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

 

A) Thank you very much! It’s so nice to hear that there are fans and supporters! I am so thrilled by that and I am so thrilled to be working in something that I believe in. To know that someone is a fan of that is a beautiful thing! It’s so wonderful so thank you! I hope to keep working and to have people keep watching.