To this day, Emily Deschanel’s most recognizable role is Temperance Brennan on “Bones.” She starred as the titular forensic scientist for 12 seasons, pulling off the show’s often quirky mix of humor and horror with ease in many of its biggest moments. Yet any fan looking to see what Deschanel was doing pre-“Bones” should check out the 2002 miniseries “Rose Red,” which featured the actor in a supporting role that’s an overlooked gem in the Deschanel oeuvre.
Written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley, “Rose Red” was an original miniseries that ran for three nights beginning January 27, 2002. The show starred Nancy Travis as professor of parapsychology Dr. Joyce Reardon, who — after experiencing career issues — decides she needs proof of supernatural occurrences to bolster her standing.
Reardon offers a group of psychics $5,000 each to investigate the titular Seattle mansion, which is said to have a haunted history. As you might expect, things go awry fairly quickly as the crew of mentalists begin to uncover the horrible secrets of the house and awaken its spirits. Deschanel plays one of the unfortunate recruits to this spooky mission, delivering a solid performance that — while it might not have showcased as much humor as “Bones” — contains hints of what was to come with her starring role on the Fox procedural just three years later.
Rose Red indirectly led to Bones for Emily Deschanel
In “Rose Red,” Emily Deschanel plays Pam Asbury, the psychic host of a TV show who’s able to gain an insight into the history of an object just by touching it. Pam accompanies the group of psychics to Rose Red, and — spoiler alert — while she makes it through Part 1 alive, she’s quickly dispatched in the second installment after she follows a doppelganger into the garden and appears to drown in the pond. Her ghost then appears later in Parts 2 and 3.
It might not have made TVLine’s list of the nine best Stephen King series, but “Rose Red” was a significant project for Deschanel personally. The actress made her film debut in the Nicholas Cage/Bridget Fonda romantic comedy-drama “It Could Happen to You” back in 1994, but between then and the turn of the century she didn’t appear in any film or TV projects. It wasn’t until “Rose Red” that she really started acting in earnest, having only appeared in a 2001 TV movie titled “The Heart Department” prior to that. Thankfully, “Rose Red” was a ratings hit, which helped Deschanel land small parts in several other high-profile projects.
Between “Rose Red” and “Bones,” Deschanel had roles in the films “Cold Mountain” and “The Alamo.” She also appeared in a small but memorable part in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2,” where she played a receptionist who sees Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker emerge from a closet to deliver pizza. A year after that brief cameo, she was cast as Temperance Brennan on Fox’s procedural, which proved to be the breakout role she’d been waiting for.
