Eric Dane is opening up about being written off Gray’s Anatomy after six seasons of taking part in Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy, on the hit ABC sequence. (Spoilers forward!)
The actor’s function was launched on the finish of season two as a visitor star. He turned a daily character in season three after he obtained constructive suggestions for his preliminary look. Over the course of the next seasons, Sloan turned a fan-favorite character, however after a aircraft crash within the season eight finale, it was revealed he would succumb to his accidents, dying originally of season 9.
Dane returned to the present briefly in season 17 when Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) was in a COVID-induced coma and was visited on an imaginary seaside by Sloan, sister Lexie Gray (Chyler Leigh), husband Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) and Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti).
The Euphoria actor stopped by Dax Shepard’s Armchair Podcast earlier this week, the place he revealed that he didn’t precisely select to go away Gray’s Anatomy when he was written off.
“I feel I used to be let go,” he advised the host, explaining that he was fighting dependancy on the time. “They didn’t let me go due to that, though it positively didn’t assist. I used to be beginning to turn into, as most of those actors who’ve spent vital time on a present, you begin to turn into very costly for the community. And the community is aware of that the present goes to do what it’s going to do regardless of who they carry on it. So long as they’ve their Gray, they’re superb.”
He continued, “I wasn’t the identical man that they had employed. So I had understood after I was let go. And Shonda [Rhimes] was actually nice. She protected us fiercely. She protected us publicly. She protected us privately. … However I used to be most likely fired. It wasn’t ceremoniously like, ‘You’re fired,’ it was similar to, ‘You’re not coming again.’”
Through the peak of his fame whereas on Gray‘s, Dane checked himself into rehab for an dependancy to painkillers and has struggled with despair through the years. He shared that when he joined the present, he had been sober for 3 or 4 years, so he was capable of distinguish between what was actuality and what wasn’t, however total, he doesn’t suppose he dealt with the celebrity that got here with it very properly.
“In case you take the entire eight years on Gray’s Anatomy, I used to be fucked up longer than I used to be sober. And that’s when issues began going sideways for me,” he revealed, including that the sudden reputation could have performed an element in why he relapsed. “It was overwhelming, and I feel I simply wished to faux that it wasn’t and that I used to be comfy with it. Act such as you’ve been there, however you haven’t been there.”
Dane at present portrays Cal Jacobs on Euphoria, the daddy of Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), and one of many present’s few grownup characters.