Eric Dane addressed this current, challenging chapter of his life during a virtual panel last week, saying that he is “not about to concede his purpose for some disease” as he lives with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and that he’ll “do just about anything” as an actor.
During the panel — which also featured guests from Brilliant Minds, the NBC medical drama on which Dane recently guest-starred, and I AM ALS, a charitable organization leading ALS advocacy — the actor spoke candidly about his emotions as he contends with the disease.
“I have no reason to be in a good spirit at any time, on any given day,” he said, per Daily Mail. “I don’t think anybody would blame me if I went upstairs in my bedroom, crawled under the sheets, and spent the next two weeks crying.”
But the Grey’s Anatomy alum isn’t giving up. “I’m not about to concede my purpose for some disease,” he said. “I just am not capable of doing that.”
And he’s still looking for more parts on screen. “I’m fairly limited in what I can do physically as an actor, but I still have my brain, and I still have my speech, so I’m willing to do just about anything,” he explained. “I’ll take on any role, but I think from here on out, it’s going to have to be ALC-centric. It’s going to be very difficult for me to play any other role where you don’t look at the 800-pound gorilla in the room — and I’m fine with that. I’m grateful that I can still work in any capacity.”
Dane went public with his ALS diagnosis in April. As Mayo Clinic explains, ALS is a neurodegenerative nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord and causes loss of muscle control.
In the November 24 episode of Brilliant Minds, Dane played a firefighter with ALS. “The hardest thing for me to do was separate myself from the character because it was something that was so fresh and it was something that was so real to me,” he said during the panel last week. “I’ve never played a character who’s going through something, and something that I’m dealing with in real time, in real life as well. So, it was hard and there were moments where it was very difficult for me to get the lines out. But overall, I was really grateful for the experience. I found it to be a bit cathartic.”