Bones' John Francis Daley Broke Down After A Lonely Last Day As Sweets
"Bones" fans were delivered a crushing blow when FBI Psychologist Lance Sweets was killed off. Not only did John Francis Daley's fan-favorite character die, but he was beaten to death by a Navy SEAL in a parking garage. It was a brutal send-off for a character who was a staple of the show for seven seasons. In many cases, an actor leaving a show after so much time would be met with a great deal of shared emotion from the cast and crew. That's not exactly how it went down for Daley on his last day.
In a 2014 interview with TVLine, Daley discussed his character's departure from the long-running Fox TV show. The actor explained how his final day of filming went down and, unfortunately, it wound up being a very lonely experience for him. Much like the character's send-off, the actor's last day was pretty brutal. Here's what Daley had to say about it:
"It was a funny day. If I were scheduling it, I would've scheduled it kind of differently. [Laughs] The very last thing we shot was me in the body bag being zipped up. I was covered in blood. No one really wanted to touch me because I was all messy. I couldn't even give anyone a hug. We were shooting at midnight, so most of the primary crew were already gone for the day. The writers had all gone home. The producers were at Comic-Con, as were Emily [Deschanel] and David [Boreanaz]. So I walked out of a nearly empty stage and couldn't say a proper goodbye to people. And as I was walking to my trailer I sort of realized, 'Oh, s**t, this is weird.' And then the tears started coming. It was very cathartic."
'It was bittersweet'
There was no party for Daley to commemorate his 140 episodes of work on "Bones" as Sweets. There was no proper goodbye with his fellow castmates and the crew. There was just fake blood and a breakdown. That's just the way things shook out. Ultimately, the powers that be decided it would be best to kill Sweets off as Daley was busy directing 2015's "Vacation" with his creative partner Jonathan Goldstein.
While it wasn't an easy decision to make, Daley wanted to pursue a career as a director, and getting the chance to make his feature directorial debut with a big studio comedy set within a beloved franchise was too hard to pass up. Speaking further in the same interview, he explained that the whole situation was bittersweet.
"People were saddened about the loss of Sweets, but understanding that I — as a person — wanted to fulfill a dream. It was actually surprising. I [expected] some people would be taking it out on my personally. And up to this point, no one has said anything [negative to me] in the Twitter-sphere. No one's bashing me. It was also nice to know that there was such a loyal fan base of the show, and of Sweets in particular, who were devastated by the loss. It was bittersweet."
Things worked out well for Daley. His directing career took off as he and Goldstein went on to direct the hit 2018 comedy "Game Night," as well as last year's "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." They also wrote a draft of 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" as well as Hulu's streaming hit "Vacation Friends."
"Bones" is currently streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.