Exclusive Interview: TJ Thyne on BONES Season 7, doing time on 24 and more – Part 2

by ABBIE BERNSTEIN

In Part 2 of our exclusive interview with actor T.J. Thyne, he tells us more about BONES Season 7, the evolution of his character Jack Hodgins, plus his gig on 24 and his work as a producer of independent feature and short films.

ASSIGNMENT X: Is the core of Jack changing as he progresses?

TJ THYNE: I think it is. I think for Season One and Two, we saw a whole lot of Jack that was very invested in the science and showing up and diving right into the work. When we lost Zack [Jack’s friend and lab partner, played by Eric Millegan], it was kind of shock to Jack’s system. He was not okay – this was his best friend and he was really uncomfortable with that and the Ooky Room really sat as this separate thing, because that was really Zack’s domain. But in Season Five, Jack moved into the Ooky Room, so he has his own space.

For four years, I had this little cubicle only. Which was fun for me, because he basically in a roundabout way owns the lab, I mean, he’s the largest donor to the Jeffersonian Institute. So really, he should have had a space all along. But he’s the only one on the team, if you think about it, who never had an office, so he finally moved into one. So he’s got his Ooky Room with all the bugs and slime that he can muster. So that’s nice, and professionally, he’s really excited and I think Jack’s really in a good place, too, because the two heartbreaking things in his life were the circumstance with Angela [Jack’s now-wife, played by Michaela Conlin] and where that was, as well as the Gravedigger [a serial killer who buried Jack alive at one point], knowing that the Gravedigger was still out there and that he wasn’t going to rest until the Gravedigger was caught, and the Gravedigger was caught, and so now Jack’s a really peppy, happy guy. If you go back to Season One and you watch, he was very angry. He had anger management issues, but Jack – not T.J. – I think he’s well past that. I think he’s very much in the positive way of thinking. That’s a long answer.