Patrick Dempsey has opened up about the last days for Eric Dane before his longtime friend and Grey’s Anatomy co-star lost a battle with ALS on Feb. 19.
“I was corresponding with him, we were texting, so I spoke to him about a week ago and some friends of ours went in to see him, and he was really starting to lose his ability to speak. He was bedridden and it was very hard for him to swallow, so the quality of his life was deteriorating so rapidly,” Dempsey told The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio UK on Friday.
Dane played the role of plastic surgeon Mark “McSteamy” Sloan during an eight-year run on the ABC drama, while Dempsey performed the role of neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd, also known as “McDreamy.”
“He was the funniest man — he was such a joy to work with and I want to just remember him in that spirit because any time he was on set, he brought so much fun to it. He had a great sense of humor. He was easy to work with, we got along instantly. First scene was him, you know, in all his glory, coming out of the bathroom with the towel on looking amazing, making you feel completely out of shape and insignificant,” Dempsey added in tribute to Dane.
Though Dane made his Grey’s Anatomy debut on Feb. 19, 2006, exactly 20 years before he died, the infamous towel scene took place in season three as Dane’s Mark emerges from a hotel bathroom in a towel around his waist as Derek and his wife Addison (Kate Walsh) discuss their troubled marriage.
Dane also had roles on The WB’s Charmed, TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last Ship and HBO’s Euphoria.
Dempsey added his on-screen collaboration with Dane was never competitive: “There was just this wonderful mutual respect. He’s wickedly intelligent and I’m always going to remember those moments of fun that we had together and celebrate the joy that he did bring to people’s lives, and the real loss is for us who don’t have them anymore.”
He added Dane had become a powerful advocate for awareness and research into battling ALS, a rare degenerative disease for which Dane first experienced symptoms around a year and a half ago.
“It just reminds us that we all have to celebrate every day like it’s our last day,” Dempsey added. “It’s something that we have to remember and certainly in a world where there is just so much crisis and there is so much tragedy that we really need to be grateful for every moment that we have, spend time with our families, do things that are better.”
