David Boreanaz On 'SEAL Team's Authenticity: 'We Do It In A Way That Is Very Detail Oriented, We Take Pride In That'

SEAL Team is back Wednesday, May 6th at 10:00PM ET/PT, only on CBS and streaming on CBS All Access. Due to studio shutdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was stopped two episodes early and the show's third season finale will be titled 'No Choice In Duty."

CBS Local's Matt Weiss spoke to series star David Boreanaz ahead of this week's finale to discuss how he's been holding up in quarantine, the show's season sendoff and the importance of keeping the show as true to life as possible.

MW: Hey David, nice to see you again, how are you doing? 

DB: I'm doing good. Doing really good. Yeah, it feels like a Monday but it's not. I guess everyday bleeds into itself these days, right? 

MW: Yeah, I don't know. Every day is just day.  

DB: Yeah, good way to put it. 

MW: Where are you actually hanging out during in all of this? 

DB: We're in California here during all of this. All is good up here. Tucked in like to the rest of the country. Doing our part, staying home, staying safe and will continue to do so until science speaks the truth. We're just kind of hanging out doing all this stuff that families would be doing. Board games, watch movies, trying to take care but it's just very boring right now. 

MW: I think we're all definitely there. Any new activities or hobbies you've picked up?

DB: Not much. My son just celebrated his 18th birthday, so he was out back, put a tent up. Little things like that. Doing a lot of mountain biking around the neighborhood, clean cars and keep the head down. 

MW: I know you're someone who likes to give back to the troops. You did a virtual USO tour with service members at the Al Assad Air Base. What was that experience like for you? 

DB: It was great. First time I think they did that. What was cool about it was being able to connect with these men and women who are protecting us and give them a little slice of life here.  Also to get a full understanding of what they do day in and day out. 

I learned their regiments, their workouts, what they're like, their favorite sports teams. I went back and forth with a Rangers fan pretty good. It was pretty funny. I told Sergeant and he had to run him a little bit more. We talked about the show and they were very invested in the storylines of the characters. It was a great experience to sit just chat with them about different types of foods and what's going on and just to escape for a good half hour was a lot of fun. 

MW: It's important to keep not only physically strong but mentally strong, especially now. Your character Jason in SEAL Team is someone who was wrestled with his mental health from all the things that have gone on in his military career. In this upcoming episode we see that get triggered a bit when the son of one of your earliest targets becomes the leader of a terrorist organization. What else can you tell us about this episode, about where Jason is? 

DB: It's a great episode and to set it up we didn't expect it to be the season ender for us because we had two other episodes. One that I was directing and Chris Chulack doing the end. It just so happened we had to be because of the shutdown that we had experienced about few months ago. 

The character is definitely going back and sometimes reminiscing a little bit more about his past. We get into that in episode 21, big time, which we won't see until we figure things out. I will tell you that his character will be clinging on to something that is kind of gnawing at him. He decides to ignore an override, but in doing so, I think it'll bring more to the forefront. Some feelings will kind of come his way mentally through the whole process of that. At the end of tonight's episode, there's definitely a choice that Jason makes that will be very interesting for the whole audience to see. 

MW: Very cool. Staying mentally tough can be helped by finding ways to distract yourself. TV is a great way for people to put the real world aside for a bit. What does mean for you to be able to provide people that distraction and kind of put everything else on the back burner for a little bit? 

DB: We tell stories and we do it as honest as we possibly can with a genre like ours. We're a workplace show and it just so happens to be these guys that are high level Tier 1 operators that put their life on the line to protect and serve their country.

If we can provide that escapism for 45 minutes at nighttime for people who kind of just enjoy it then that's what we're proud of. The way we do our show, the way our show operates and how it comes about.  It's pretty cool and we're all proud of that. 

MW: It's great to see the way SEAL Team handles depicting the military in a respectful way and tries to get things as close to real as you can.

DB: We take pride in that. The people that work on our show are ex tier operators. We do it in a way that is very detailed oriented. We're so happy that CBS allows us to do that. The type of show that we make is very much not a "type of a network show" its more a cable show for network quality. We're proud of that too. 

MW: It really shows. Well that's all I have for you today David. Always a pleasure talking to you and all the best. Stay safe!

DB: Thanks, appreciate it. Take care, Matt.

SEAL Team will air its season finale on May 6th at 10:00PM ET/PT, only on CBS and streaming on CBS All Access. Check your local listings for more information.