A Casting Mishap Had Bones' Effects Team Scrambling Over A Dead Body

Ideally, when planning out a special effect for a movie or TV show, the effects team will have plenty of time, good communication, and a reasonable budget to pull off whatever is needed to convince the audience that what is happening on screen is real (or real enough to suspend disbelief anyway). That's always tricky on a TV show with a tight schedule, particularly a network TV show producing more than 20 episodes per year on average. Such was the case with "Bones," which ran for 12 seasons and well over 200 episodes on Fox. On occasion, things got tricky for its production crew, like that time Emily Deschanel suffered a real injury that had to be covered up. A similar mishap during an episode from the show's second season made things especially difficult.

The episode in question is "Bodies in the Book," which was the 15th episode of "Bones" season 2. In "Bones: The Official Companion", makeup effects artist Chris Yagher revealed that getting the body of Ellen Laskow ready for camera proved to be a huge undertaking. Why, exactly? Because a casting decision threw their entire plan out of whack. As Yagher explained:

"The producers and I discussed how we would create the body of Ellen Laskow, the dead woman being eaten by fire ants. We determined that an actress would need to be found that matched a body we had in our inventory, namely a Caucasian female with dark brown hair. While prepping the body, I found out that because of a miscommunication, the director cast an African American female with light-brown cornrows."

"Bodies in the Book" sees Booth and Brennan investigating a murder at the marina that bears a striking resemblance to a fictional case from Brennan's latest book. That proves to be just the beginning, as a copycat killer emerges, attempting to turn fiction into reality.

"Bones" season 2 is considered a high-point for the show, having gifted fans with its highest-rated episode. But that doesn't mean it was easy getting these bodies ready for Brennan and Booth to discover. After the casting mishap, Yagher and the rest of the team had to figure out how to make it work, with just days to get the job done. In the end, they pulled it together by retrofitting the body they had created with spare parts to have it match the actor, Valarie Pettiford:

"With about four days left before shooting, we quickly found a head and two arms that resembled those of the newly-cast actress, attached them to the body that we were already preparing, and re-created the ant bite marks that had previously been made on the Caucasian female's face and arms. We then approached the hair department and acquired the cornrow wig and hair extensions to complete the look. After a few late nights, we completed the body and arrived on time for the filming of the scene."

That speaks volumes about what the team was able to pull off week-to-week. Aside from cobbling together a dead body at the last minute, the "Bones" VFX crew made a barf-worthy severed head on one occasion, just for the sake of example. TV deadlines are brutal and unforgiving, as network schedules are difficult to move around. The ability for everyone working on these shows to adapt is worth highlighting.

"Bones" is currently streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.