Eric Dane received a 10-minute standing ovation after finishing filming his guest appearance on “Brilliant Minds.”
The actor addressed his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) on Monday’s episode, playing a firefighter with the same disease.
After filming a particularly “emotional” scene, show creator Michael Grassi told USA Today:
“Also, while his character finds courage, Eric also has a lot of courage to tell his story. Coming out and sharing this part of yourself is vulnerable, but it’s also very important, and I think it raises awareness and shows people that they’re not alone.”
Grassi also detailed how he jumped at the chance to work with Dane when the acting team approached him about appearing on the show.
While dealing with their own “health emergencies,” Grassi and Dane grappled with “the idea of ’how do families overcome difficult diagnoses?'”
“There’s no rulebook. And there’s no right way or wrong way. And in our conversation, the issues that he was dealing with in real time, and the issues that I was dealing with in life, and the issues that a lot of people deal with every day, were how to navigate, how to communicate, how to accept help,” the producer, who also worked on shows such as “Riverdale,” told the magazine.
Despite battling a debilitating illness, Grassi said working with Dane was “a joy”, saying he always asked for a hug when he arrived on set and “his spirit was very supportive and very open”.
“What was really fun was that every time we called ‘cut’ and finished shooting a scene, there was a lot of laughter and banter between Eric and the cast,” he said.
On Monday, it was announced that Dane, 53, will star in his first TV role filmed since his diagnosis.
In the season 2 episode, the actor played a firefighter named Matthew who struggles to tell his family about his ALS.
Dane revealed his ALS diagnosis in April in a statement, saying, “I have been diagnosed with ALS. I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as I navigate this next chapter.”
In his first interview two months later, he updated “Good Morning America” viewers on how his “right side…is not working completely.”
The “Euphoria” star explained, “My one arm is working. My left hand, which is my dominant arm, is working.”
Dane called off his divorce from wife Rebecca Gayheart amid his diagnosis, but she recently detailed the “very complicated” role she plays in his life.
Speaking about her two daughters, she said on the Broad Ideas podcast:
“I really want to help facilitate that for them.”
The “Jawbreaker” actress and Dane married in October 2004 and filed for divorce in 2018. The couple have daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13.
