Eric Dane isn't saying goodbye to the camera yet.
One week after the Grey's Anatomy alum made a guest appearance on Brilliant Minds, playing a character with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he reflected on bringing continued awareness to the disease after sharing his diagnosis earlier this year.
"I think 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," Eric explained during a Dec. 2 virtual panel hosted by the nonprofit I AM ALS. "I would love my life to be all about me, but I just can't. I don't think I would be able to move forward if that were the case. It's been a propulsive sort of component to my existence."
Although he emphasized that his estranged wife Rebecca Gayheart and their daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 13, are "the priority" in his life, being an ALS advocate is also crucial for him.
"I want to 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," the 53-year-old said. "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 solutions."
For Eric, starring as a firefighter who struggled to accept his diagnosis and to seek help from his family, hit close to home.
"The hardest thing for me to do was separate myself from the character because it was so fresh and was something that was so real to me," he admitted. "I've never played a character who was going through something that I'm dealing with in real time, in real life."
"There were moments where it was very difficult for me to even get the lines out," he continued. "But I, overall, was very grateful for the experience. I found it to be a bit cathartic."
The Euphoria actor knows that since battling the rare degenerative disease, his career will continue to change.
"I'm fairly limited in what I can do physically as an actor, but I still have my brain and I still have my speech," he noted. "So, I'm willing to do just about anything. I'll take on any role. But I think, from here on out, it's going to have to be ALS-centric."
"It's going to be very difficult for me to play any other role," he added. "I'm grateful I can still work in any capacity. I'm not going to concede my purpose for some disease. I'm just not capable of doing that."
Although Eric continues to feel the physical side effects of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, it has been a source of motivation.
"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 noted. "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."
Indeed, he emphasized, "It's encouraging for me to know I actually can handle it with a buoyant spirit in the face of something so horrible."
For a closer look at Eric's buoyancy amid his ALS journey, keep reading.
Opening Up About His Private Health Battle
Eric Dane shared that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in April 2025.
"I have been diagnosed with ALS,” Dane told People at the time. “I am grateful to have my loving family by my side as we navigate this next chapter.”
Returning to Set
The Euphoria star made it clear that he wasn’t stepping away from the screen amid his diagnosis, sharing in April 2025 that he was continuing to film the final season of the HBO series.
And Dane, whose Amazon MGM Studios series Countdown debuted over the summer, admitted that acting has kept him “sharp” has he navigates his health battle.
"I feel great when I'm at work," he explained to E! News in June 2025. "Of course, there have been some sort of setbacks, but I feel pretty good. My spirit is always pretty buoyant, so at the end of the day, that's all that matters."
Detailing His First Symptoms
Two months after sharing his diagnosis, the Grey’s Anatomy alum spoke candidly about his journey, including the symptoms that led to his diagnosis.
"I started experiencing some weakness in my right hand," Dane told Diane Sawyer in a sit-down on Good Morning America in June 2025. "I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued, but a few weeks later I noticed it got a little worse."
After nine months of appointments, which involved visiting two hand specialists and two neurologists, Dane was told he had ALS.
"I will never forget those three letters," the father of two explained. "It's on me the second I wake up. It's not a dream."
“Sobering" Road Ahead
While sharing how the rare degenerative disease has affected him physically so far, he also detailed where he sees the progression headed.
“My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working," Dane shared during his interview with Sawyer. "I feel like maybe a couple more months, and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering."
A Close-Knit Support System
As Dane goes through this health battle, his wife of over 20 years, Rebecca Gayheart, who filed to dismiss their 2018 divorce in March, has been by his side.
“I call Rebecca. I talk to her every day,” Dane shared during his interview with Sawyer. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents, and she is probably my biggest champion and my most stalwart supporter, and I lean on her."
According to Gayheart, she and Dane are the “best of friends.”
“We are really close. We are great co-parents,” the Beverly Hills, 90210 star explained to E! News April 9, 2025. “We really figured out the formula to staying a family and I think our kids are benefiting greatly from it and we are as well.”
Prioritizing Family Time
While Dane has been marking milestones with his and Gayheart’s daughters Billie and Georgia, he’s admitted he resents how his ALS is affecting the lives of his family members.
"I'm angry, because my father was taken from me when I was young," the actor, whose father died by suicide when he was a young boy, said during his GMA interview. "And now there's a very good chance I'm going to be taken from my girls while they're very young. At the end of the day, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit, if I can."
Emmys Absence
Dane was set to present at the 2025 Emmys alongside his Grey's Anatomy costar Jesse Williams on Sept. 14 but ended up missing the award show. A few weeks after his absence, Dane shared that he had to skip the show because of a hospital visit.
“ALS is a nasty disease," he said during an interview with The Washington Post published on Oct. 2. "So I was in the hospital during the Emmys getting stitches put in my head."
"I was a really upset about it,” Dane added. “But you know, there was nothing I could do about it."
His Hopes for the Future
Dane met with doctors and representatives from the I Am ALS organization in September, 2025, and spoke with California congressman Eric Swalwell about federal funding towards research for the currently incurable neurological disease.
“I wanna ring every bell,” Dane told Swalwell in a TikTok video posted by the politician on Sept. 29. “I have two daughters at home. I wanna see them graduate college, get married, maybe have grandkids.”