A Heavy Scene In Bones Challenged Carla Gallo As An Actor

Death was such a common presence on “Bones” that it deserved an office to itself in the Jeffersonian. Most of the time it came in the form of a character whose only purpose was to fuel the plot of that week’s episode. Mind you, there had been close calls before (the Jeffersonian’s big cheese, Camille “Cam” Saroyan, was originally meant to be killed off after just six episodes), yet nothing that could really soften the blow of Sweets perishing after roughly seven seasons of playing for Team “Bones.” It hit the show’s cast as hard as the fans, as Gallo recalled to Give Me My Remote in 2014.

“That was a tough one. I would say that’s the hardest episode I’ve ever shot,” said Gallo when asked about filming Sweets’ send-off. Calling the scene “really super challenging on the work side of it,” Gallo admitted that it felt a bit like the cast had lost Daley for real: 

“[…] This was a unique circumstance to be mourning someone who is leaving or gone. I’ve never really had that before. Normally it’s, ‘I have to play this person died, but I’ve only been working here a week. I don’t know this person, or I was just a day player, or we didn’t get to know each other.’ But in this case, I think we all felt [this] way: I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe he’s left.”

For as much as television requires actors to play pretend, some genuine emotion can come through when they’re forced to bid adieu to a longtime co-star who’s off to work on another project. In other ways, those very real feelings can actually make it harder for them to do their job. No matter the context, it’s never easy to say goodbye.