Eric Dane Gives Daughters Life Advice in Netflix Posthumous Interview

Eric Dane, who died after a battle with ALS on Thursday, was the latest public figure to participate in the Netflix series Famous Last Words, where, following an intimate one-on-one interview about the former Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor’s life and career, he offered final words of advice directly to his two daughters, asking that they to live their lives to the fullest while remaining strong and resilient amid life’s many challenges.

Dane’s death this week at 53 years old came after a battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which he went public with only 10 months ago. His wife, actress Rebecca Gayheart, and his two daughters, Billie Beatrice Dane, 16, and Georgia Geraldine Dane, 14, were with him in his final moments; these three define his personal life and are the key topic in his final sit-down interview, which also delved into his father’s suicide and his own battle with drugs and alcohol. The filmed conversation between Dane and television writer Brad Falchuk, which became available on Netflix on Friday, took place in November. 

“Billie and Georgia, these words are for you,” Dane begins as he gives a final public statement in the concluding moments of the episode following his tête-à-tête with Falchuk. “I tried. I stumbled sometimes, but I tried. Overall, we had a blast, didn’t we?”

As Dane then recalls times spent at the beach in Santa Monica, Hawaii and Mexico with his wife and girls, the Euphoria actor becomes momentarily choked up. “I see you now playing in the ocean for hours, my water babies. Those days, pun intended, were heaven. I want to tell you four things I’ve learned from this disease, and I hope you don’t just listen to me. I hope you’ll hear me.”

Dane’s four pieces of advice involve working to live life in the present, and he tells his gifts that he spent too much time “wallowing and worrying in self-pity, shame and doubt,” and that he regrets how he would replay decisions and second-guess himself. 

“I shouldn’t have done this. I never should’ve that.’ No more. Out of pure survival, I am forced to stay in the present. But I don’t want to be anywhere else. The past contains regrets. The future remains unknown. So you have to live now. The present is all you have. Treasure it. Cherish every moment.”

He then encourages them to find love in their lives, but not necessarily with another person. Dane’s love, he says, was acting, and this was discovered when he was around the age of his daughters. 

“That love eventually got me through my darkest hours, my darkest days, my darkest year. I still love my work, I still look forward to it, I still want to get in front of a camera and play my part. My work doesn’t define me, but it excites me,” he said. 

Friends were a large part of Dane’s life, seemingly in his final year, and he tells his daughters to choose them wisely. “Find your people and allow them to find you. And then give yourselves to them. The best of them will give back to you. No judgment, no conditions, no questions asked, he tells them on the show. 

Dane then explains how the friends he made in his life showed up for him as his health began to decline — in fact, he indicated that “every single one has stepped up.”

“ I can’t do little things I used to do. I can’t drive around, go to the gym, get coffee, or hang out. But I’ve learned to embrace alternatives,” the actor said. “My friends come to me, we eat together, watch a game, listen to music. They don’t do anything special; they just show up. That’s a big one. Just show up. And love your friends with everything you have. Hang onto them. They will entertain you, guide you, help you, support you and some will save you.”

Dane’s concluding advice seems to reflect how he lived his final days, as he advises them to face adversity with resilience and dignity. This is the superpower he has and which he is passing down to them, Dane says.

“So when something unexpected hits you, and it will because that’s life, fight and face it with honesty, integrity and grace, even if it feels or seems insurmountable,” Dane tells his girls. “I hope I’ve demonstrated that you can face anything. You can face the end of your days. You can face hell with dignity. Fight, girls, and hold your heads high.

While the show concluded with Dane’s legacy, earlier in the episode, Falchuk and Dane’s conversation leans more into his past, which includes his parents, the loves in his life and the career that made him a television sensation. Dane’s opening up about the death of his father and the demons that were part of his life delivers a rare intimacy in the interview. Here, Dane discusses the emotional trauma that can persist, particularly around the death of his father, who struggled with alcoholism and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound when the actor was seven years old. 

“I think trauma reaches somebody on a cellular level, it’s really hard to get it out of your system … The only thing you do is learn how to deal with it. I’ve been working through them very long. I ended up going to a treatment center for trauma and depression … solely related to my dad, because that’s where the trauma came from.”

The actor entered a California treatment center in 2011 for a prescription drug addiction, and in 2017, his struggle with depression led him to take a leave of absence from the television series The Last Ship, halting production for over a month. It was shortly after this that Gayheart filed for divorce after 14 years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences” with Dane. In March of last year, Gayheart filed to dismiss the divorce petition after seven years of separation, as they seemed to give their marriage another shot.

Netflix’s new, long-form interview series is based on the Danish TV format of the same name — Det Sidste Ord. It includes “icons who have made indelible marks on society and culture,” and the interviews are conducted with extreme discretion. Dane’s interview is the second of the stateside episode of the series on Netflix; the premiere interview was with primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall before her death at 91 in October.