Eric Dane — best known for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan on Grey’s Anatomy, and more recently for portraying Cal Jacobs on Euphoria — recorded his last words to his two teenage daughters before his death on Thursday at the age of 53, almost one year after announcing he was suffering from ALS.
The actor, whose final conversation is featured in episode two of Netflix’s new posthumous interview series, Famous Last Words, looked directly into the camera at the end of the exchange to address his daughters specifically.
“Billie and Georgia, these words are for you,” Dane said. “I tried. I stumbled sometimes, but I tried. Overall we had a blast, didn’t we? I remember all the times we spent at the beach, the two of you, me, and mom — in Santa Monica, Hawaii, Mexico.”
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“I see you now playing in the ocean for hours, my water babies. Those days, pun intended, were heaven,” he continued. “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.”
“First, live now. Right now. In the present,” Dane advised, adding, “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.”
The Countdown actor explained that “for years,” he has spent “long chunks of time wallowing and worrying in self-pity, shame, and doubt,” and second-guessing himself, thinking, “I shouldn’t have done this. I never should’ve that.”
“No more,” Dane asserted, adding that he was recently “forced to stay in the present” out of “pure survival.”
“Second, fall in love,” he continued. “Not necessarily with a person — although I do recommend that as well — but fall in love with something. Find your passion, your joy. Find the thing that makes you want to get up in the morning, drives you through the entire day.”
“Find something that excites you, find your path, your purpose, your dream. Then go for it. Really go for it,” the actor urged.
For his third lesson, Dane suggested to “choose your friends wisely,” and “find your people, and allow them to find you.”
“Then give yourselves to them,” he added. “The best of them will give back to you. No judgment, no conditions, no questions asked.”
Dane’s fourth lesson was to “fight with every ounce of your being, and with dignity.”
“When you face challenges, health or otherwise, fight. Never give up. Fight until your last breath,” the X-Men: The Last Stand actor said. “This disease is slowly taking my body, but it will never take my spirit.”
“Billie and Georgia, you are my heart. You are my everything. Good night. I love you. Those are my last words,” Dane said at the end of the episode.
The actor’s final interview — released on Friday, just hours after his death was announced to the public — was “conducted under an agreement that the episode would only be aired after his death,” Netflix told Variety.
The posthumous interview series, which “gives audiences around the world the opportunity to hear from a cultural icon after they’ve passed away,” premiered late last year, with episode one featuring English primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in October at the age of 91.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.