Eric Dane Admits He Will Be Playing ALS-Centric Characters Moving Forward

After appearing on NBC’s Brilliant Minds, in which the actor played a firefighter with ALS, Dane shared how it made him want to pursue roles that incorporate his real-life illness.

“I am 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 am willing to do just about anything. I’ll take on a role. But I think from here on out, it’s going to have to be ALS-centric,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum said during a Tuesday, December 2, virtual panel discussion in collaboration with advocacy organization I AM ALS, of which Dane is an ambassador.

“It’s going to be very difficult for me to play any other role where you know, 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,” he added.

Dane played Matthew, a firefighter with ALS who struggles to share his diagnosis with his family, on the November 24 episode of Brilliant Minds.

When the executive producer, Michael Grassi, reached out to Dane about the role, the pair had some deep conversations about the storyline. Dane shared how the most “challenging part” about the role was separating him from his character, however it became a “cathartic” experience.

“It was something that was so fresh, and it was something that was so real to me.”

He continued: “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.”

He added that he found he had a “buoyant spirit in the face of something so horrible.”

Brilliant Minds airs Mondays on NBC at 10 p.m. ET/PT.