Eric Dane returns to TV in a role that leans into his ALS diagnosis

CNN Eric Dane s latest role is perhaps his preponderance personal to date The Euphoria star has been talking about his identification with and rehabilitation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis since April Dane appeared in an episode of Brilliant Minds this week playing a firefighter named Matthew who also suffers from the progressive neurodegenerative illness known as ALS Showrunner Michael Grassi advised Deadline that Dane s company reached out to say the actor was a fan of the show and would like to appear Grassi a fan of Dane s reported he was so excited by the opportunity to tell a story with him and what he s right now dealing with So Eric and I had a series of conversations and funny enough our first Zoom I had to fly home for a family emergency with a family member dealing with a complicated identification and I Zoomed from that family member s house and I remember our conversations very speedily started circling this very simple idea of what is it like for a family to handle a complex identification Grassi reported The producer declared part of the goal of the Thanksgiving episode was to show what is it like for a family to have to work through this together They used the opportunity to talk about what it can be like for people who give help for a living to ask for help with Dane s firefighter character Matthew as an example I think that s the hardest thing for this character of Matthew and I think it s hard for a lot of people to accept help Grassi explained In October Dane traveled to Washington DC with the nonprofit I AM ALS to advocate for further research and assistance in neurodegenerative diseases In DC he talked about his desire for the future I have two daughters at home I want to see them you know graduate college and get married and maybe have grandkids Dane disclosed at the time You know I want to be there for all that So I m going to fight to the last breath on this one