Eric Dane “spoke exactly like this,” recalls his wife, Rebecca Gayheart Dane.
The widow of the Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria star is speaking out for the first time since Eric Dane’s death on February 19 in support of a charity that was very important to the actor. Dane passed away at the age of 53 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
In the last weeks of his life, Dane took part in a voice recovery project led by the AI company ElevenLabs. It was both a means of restoring his ability to communicate, through a synthetic voice created using past recordings of Dane’s voice, and an effort to leave an important part of himself with his daughters, 16-year-old Billie and 14-year-old Georgia.
“I was really excited about that because he was losing his voice and it was becoming more and more difficult to communicate every day, so it kind of became an urgent need,” the Gayheart Dane told Variety.
A few weeks before his death, Dane was able to hear how Eleven Labs had accurately recreated his voice from a series of historical recordings he had provided. eleven lab
“He was anxiously waiting to hear it, and when he received this song from Eleven Labs, it was a really big moment. It was a powerful moment. We played it, and Eric became visibly emotional,” says the Gayheart Dane. “And when I heard that, I cried, and I think everyone there cried, too.”
AI company Eleven Labs has created 11 short documents depicting the use of voice.
Eleven Labs has pledged to provide free perpetual software licenses and support services to people suffering from terminal neurological diseases such as ALS, which gradually rob them of their ability to speak. The company, primarily based in New York and London, specializes in audio technology and provides a vast database of licensed and copyright-compliant audio that can be accessed as an AI platform. Eleven Labs promises to help 1 million people with $1 billion worth of services.
To spread the word, the company produced 11 Voices, a series of 11 documentary shorts that profile more than 7,000 people who have been helped by the company’s technology and voice restoration efforts. Dane was scheduled to appear in a bonus episode of the series, but his health began to deteriorate, making filming impossible. “11 Voices” will be premiered at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas on March 13th. Gayheart Dane will be participating in a panel session related to the premiere that was scheduled to feature Dane.
“He wanted to advocate for love and the movement[around ALS]so I’m there to do that for him,” she says. “It’s a really big movement for a million people to have a voice to communicate with their children, their loved ones, their caregivers, their doctors, or their jobs.”
Gayheart Dane said her family is “still in shock” after Dane, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2024, passed away. She says the adversity her family faced brought out the best in many of the people around her.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has been so kind to us over the last few years. It’s been hard and meaningful work, and the people are kind,” says Gayheart Dane.
“I’m having a hard time receiving the support and love that’s coming from all directions because of Eric and the (entertainment) community that has been so generous with their time. They’ve been supporting me and the girls the last two weeks, but I don’t think they’re going anywhere. I think they’re in for the long haul. Hollywood gets a bad rap, and that makes me angry. We have a community of wonderful people, and I’m so thankful for them.”
ElevenLab’s AI system is fine-tuned to absorb every syllable and nuance of natural human speech from existing recordings. The ability to provide something close to the real thing could be a game-changer for families suffering from ALS, cerebral palsy, motor neuron disease, and other debilitating diseases.
Matty Staniszewski, co-founder of New York-based ElevenLab, said the voice recovery project is an example of using AI tools to enhance one of the characteristics that makes humans unique.
“Just being able to help people reclaim some of their identity, reclaim some of the amazing things that make us human, and understand that that’s true for both individuals and the people around them, is incredibly motivating for us about what technology can do for the world,” Staniszewski says. “I think there is nothing better than seeing technology have a positive impact and the happiness of the people who use it. We want to give technology to as many people as possible who need it.”
A few days after Dane got the Eleven Lab audio system, he and Gayheart Dane let their daughters listen to it.
“They were like, this isn’t a recording, it’s your voice, it’s you. I mean, it was on the spot. He just spoke this way and they captured it so beautifully,” Gayheart Dane says.
The couple’s teenage daughters “agreed to it. We knew what was going to happen and were so happy to have it,” Gayheart Dane says. “We were all really struggling with the loss of voice that he was already experiencing, and it felt so good to know that it was in our back pocket. It’s sad that we couldn’t really take advantage of it, and I think Eric is too. But what I do know is that he wants as many people as possible to have access to voice restoration technology.”
For Dane, the audio archive is especially meaningful given his accomplishments as an actor.
“Your voice is a very important part of your artistic work, and you are a storyteller. He really understood how much it meant to have a voice. As his speech began to decline, he lost the ability to speak. He lost a certain part of himself. He expressed things in a very special way of himself. So he really understood how meaningful and extraordinary an honor it was to give someone their voice back, and how it felt for others, and he wanted to make sure he did everything he could to make that happen.” “11 Voices is a great movement and I know he’s happy that this is happening. I don’t think he could be happier that a million people are getting their voices back. I know that.”
ElevenLab has made a name for itself over the past few years with its technology and focus on closing high-profile licensing deals with actors and family complexes, as well as negotiating a groundbreaking AI deal with SAG-AFTRA. The company has made a conscious effort to be seen as respectful of creative rights and copyright concerns amid serious concerns that AI will steal jobs from Hollywood.
“I’ve been learning more about Eleven Labs and all the ways they use someone’s voice and all the ways a patient who has lost their voice can use the restored voice they’ve given them, because it’s just so incredibly real,” Gayheart Dane says. “What we don’t remember is that our voices are a big part of who we are.”
