David Boreanaz had a memorable first meeting with the late Betty White when she joined the cast of Bones — and it wasn’t PG.
“She showed up in the diner. They drive her in and put her — Ms. White — [they] usher her in,” Boreanaz, 56, recalled of White’s first day on the TV set while speaking at the Bones: 20th Anniversary Retrospective panel during the inaugural Televerse Festival on Saturday, August 16, via People. “And she says hello to everybody.”
The actor, who played FBI agent Seeley Booth on the Fox series, remembered waiting next to his onscreen love interest and the show’s leading lady, Emily Deschanel, to meet White in person. (Deschanel, 48, played forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.)
“[Betty’s] like, ‘Good to see you. Oh, good to see you. You’re so nice. You’re so pretty,’” Boreanaz told the crowd. “She goes up to Emily — ‘Oh, you’re so pretty.’”
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When it came to his time in the spotlight with White, it didn’t disappoint. “She looks at me, she goes, ‘Holy s***, I want to f*** you. I want to f** you!’” Boreanaz recalled. “I just started laughing.”
Although Deschanel was reportedly standing next to Boreanaz during the NSFW conversation, she told the crowd she had no recollection of it. “I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I’m saying I didn’t hear that, but that’s amazing,” she confessed.
Tamara Taylor, who played Camille Saroyan on the show, noted that White had a “legendary potty mouth.”
T.J. Thyne, who portrayed Jack Hodgins, agreed that the iconic actress was no angel on set, calling White “a little troublemaker.”
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Bones premiered in 2005 and followed FBI’s Booth as he teamed up with Jeffersonian’s best Brennan to investigate cases where the victims’ bones are their only clues. It ran for 12 seasons, ending in 2017.
White joined the cast as one of the more memorable “Squinterns,” Dr. Beth Mayer, during season 11 in 2015. She portrayed the character — who was the oldest intern the Jeffersonian Institute had throughout the series — on two episodes.
The Golden Girls alum died in December 2021 at the age of 99. White has remained a beloved part of the Bones legacy, just one of many career highlights that fans and her former costars won’t soon forget.
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When it comes to a possible Bones reboot, both Boreanaz and Deschanel have teased they’d be open to it. For now, Deschanel is happy taping her “Boneheads” podcast with Carla Gallo, but is sad that White won’t be a future guest.
“Betty White, you know, is a bucket list person, and we just missed that so sadly,” Deschanel exclusively told Us Weekly in March, referring to her dream podcast guests.