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David Boreanaz Talks Angel, SEAL Team, and Acting With Emily Deschanel | Fan Expo Dallas 2025
Jun 24, 2025
David Boreanaz sat down with fans at Fan Expo Dallas 2025 for a fast but memorable Q&A. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to Bones and SEAL Team, Boreanaz opened up about staying creatively sharp on long-running shows, portraying complex characters like Angel and Angelus, and working closely with real military advisors on SEAL Team.
He also talked about:
The evolution of his character on Buffy and Angel
Why he loved playing both the hero and the villain
How Emily Deschanel has adjusted to her first convention experience
His admiration for actors like Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy
A surprise shoutout to Darth Vader and Tom Cruise
The craft of staying authentic through years of fan-favorite roles
🎤 Filmed at Fan Expo Dallas 2025
📲 Subscribe to @talesfromthecollection for more celebrity panels and interviews
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where do I go here thank you it just a
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pleasure to be here in Dallas first and
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foremost want to thank Fan Expo for
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having me uh for all the the work that
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they do in front of and behind and
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things that you guys don't see which
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allows us they allow us to come and
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spend time with you so round of applause
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for the people who work here
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who take their time and uh their
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dedication to putting all this together
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this takes a lot of work so thank you
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and thank you to you guys for coming out
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and spending some time with me whether
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it was in the autograph line or doing
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pictures
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being here i'm sorry that we are a
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little bit behind on this panel i wish
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we could open it up even more um but
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sometimes that's just the way it is when
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you get caught with other people and
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things that are out there with pictures
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and and whatnot so from the bottom of my
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heart I'm glad I'm so happy to be here
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in Dallas too
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okay so we're going to do roundabout
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question yeah lightning round um you've
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had the unique experience of being on
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series that have gone for multiple
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seasons and that is so rare in your
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industry how do you keep your
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performance fresh and how do you keep
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the character alive you you it's through
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repetition and I think when you get
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through the repetitions of character and
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you continuously work on the character
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with an acting coach that I have in Ivon
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Chvik who is we were very dedicated to
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the types of characters that we that I
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was playing and even especially with
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Emily we would go together and we would
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work on the scripts we would decide the
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moments and the subtext that we would
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use for each moment of every episode and
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um that allowed us to kind of
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continuously push the envelope there um
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the SEAL team was the same it was a very
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constant grind uh the guys were great
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that were on it we had uh some real
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operators dev crew people that uh you
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know gave their time and were on the
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show and we played it in a very
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authentic way so for me I have to
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continuously just keep the reps going
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and keep grinding and don't just sit
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back and say "Oh well I've done I've
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gotten through season 1 or I've gotten
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through an episode and I can just phone
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it in." I would be doing as a disservice
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to the fans um it's really what you guys
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see what we put out there that is
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exciting for me so you have to
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constantly work at it um however that is
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as an actor and how you want to attack
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it that's great you're So you've played
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so many iconic characters is there
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anything from your resume that you feel
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is underrated
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oh well you know I've been fortunate to
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do some really great stuff i mean
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obviously from what you've seen um The
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Family Guy was pretty hilarious came out
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you know that was kind of hilarious did
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a film called These Girls which I really
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loved uh I thought that was a really
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smart independent film we shot i went to
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the Toronto Film Festival um you know
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The Crow was crazy i mean we had crazy
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time shooting that eddie Furlong you
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know Dennis Hopper you know things that
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you have the people that you work you
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know did a film with Alan which
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was great it was his film it's called
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Ghost Hunter and it wasn't originally
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called Ghost Hunter but ended up being
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called Ghost Hunter another story but uh
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you know you you take each one for what
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they are and you apply your work to it
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and see how it comes out so on Buffy and
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Angel you play technically the same
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character but he has many incarnations
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we have Liam we have Angelus and we have
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Angel did you find it difficult to
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switch back and forth or did they each
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have a unique profile you know I it's
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just a flip of the script for me in my
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head it's an easy compartmentalizing
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thing i love playing hero characters but
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yet I also like the villain aspect of it
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so it's a mental kind of a switch that
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goes off and you kind of find that evil
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personality and angel and you have this
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kind of oh shucks kind of teddy bear
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kind of guy and angel and you marry them
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somehow i was able to do that and you
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learn your gears you learn how to shift
3:56
them was inspired by some great actors
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that I admire very doubly Gary Olden um
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and a professional that was very strong
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for me as far as what he did on screen
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and his you know his ticks and his
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whatever his personality that he would
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play i would you know kind of look at
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that performance like "Wow he's got some
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really good change up in there." So um
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yeah so this weekend is Emily's first
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con and Yeah
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what has it been like getting to
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experience this with her you know great
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it's like stepping back on set i mean
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really like literally it felt like we
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were back in action she was telling me
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what to do consistently she was telling
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me where to sit where to stand what to
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eat what not to eat you know have this
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have that you know it's kind of like um
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it's a thesaurus of words with her it's
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a it's it's an aquarium full of so many
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different types of fish right it is so
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beautiful and so many different
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personalities to her that uh it's been a
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blessing to be with her here these past
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few days and to sit with her and talk to
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her
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oh wow okay attention everybody stand up
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and move to your left
5:10
okay Star Wars today i'm a fan let's go
5:13
i'm in
5:14
so unfortunately I only have time for
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one more question before they're going
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to tell us we don't have to go home but
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we can't stay here
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uh is there an actor out there that you
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haven't worked with that you would like
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to work with um Darth Vader
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seems to be crawling down my shoulders
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right now they you know you aspire to
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work with people that are so embedded in
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their focus and embedded in their craft
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daniel B lewis is such an icon to me tom
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Cruz I love you know Harrison Ford i
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love um guys that really you know Tom
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Hardy are intense and have a heroic kind
5:53
of sensibility to their personalities
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and that are strong and the
5:57
rebels are coming
6:01
david thank you so much thank you guys
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this is the quickest panel I've ever
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done but I thank you all thank you
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people in Texas thank you Dallas i
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appreciate every single one of you from
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my patches to all the things that you
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give me so I really appreciate you thank
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you good news is you can come see David
6:18
at the table so we hope to see a lot of
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you there thank you so much
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