NEED TO KNOW
Eric Dane is sharing why it’s more important than ever to talk about his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis.
Days after appearing in an episode of Brilliant Minds as Matthew, a firefighter and 9/11 hero who is struggling to tell his wife he’s been diagnosed with ALS, the actor is opening up about his journey. The performance on the show was the Grey’s Anatomy star’s first on-screen role since his April announcement.
Dane opened up about his experience portraying an ALS patient on the show and living with the neurodegenerative disease in real life, in a virtual panel featuring I AM ALS and Synapticure co-founders Brian Wallach and Sandra Abrevaya for Giving Tuesday.
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The group was also joined by Brilliant Minds showrunner, creator and executive producer Michael Grassi and Dr. Daniela Lamas, M.D., who serves as a writer and consulting producer on the show.
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While Dane admitted that the most challenging thing about his Brilliant Minds appearance was separating himself from his character, who was living something “so real” for him, he was ultimately “grateful” for the “cathartic” experience.
“I have no reason to be in a good spirit at any time, on any given day, 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,” he said. “And I was a little bit pleasantly surprised when I realized that I wasn’t built like that, because I thought for sure that was gonna be me.”
Dane found it “very encouraging” to know that he can actually have a “buoyant spirit in the face of something so horrible.”
While his experience on the show was “one of a kind,” and he doesn’t know if he’d “ever do it again for anybody else,” Dane understands that “it’s imperative that I share my journey with as many people as I can because I don’t feel like my life is about me anymore.”
He said it’s something he’s had to wrestle with because he’s a “pretty selfish person,” but can’t move forward with life being “all about me,” calling it “a propulsive sort of component to my existence.”
“You know, obviously, I have a family at home, and they’re the priority. But this is such a big deal to me,” said Dane.
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“I make sure that people are aware of what ALS is and what it’s about, and more importantly, what we can do to combat it and improve the landscape, because it’s so rocky and littered with hurdles and bureaucracy and all this other nonsense that we’re trying to sift through so we can get to a place where we go, start working on solution,” he continued.
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Brilliant Minds airs Mondays on NBC at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
