Dax Shepard is opening up about how he formed an unlikely friendship with the late Eric Dane.
During a recent conversation with CNN’s Anderson Cooper at the New Orleans Writers Festival, Shepherd explained that he “hated” Dane at first and almost got into a fight with him. But after learning about his upbringing through AA meetings, the two eventually connected and became friends.
“Eric Dane, I can now say that I met in recovery and we hated each other. I hated him!” Shepard said. “I thought he was a bit of a bully. We were in a meeting [and] He threatened a younger member of the group, and this had been simmering for a long time, so I said, “Let’s go.” outside. now.’ was on. And we went outside to have a fist fight in the hallway of the AA meeting.
The audience laughed, and fatherhood The actor pointed out that people intervened and broke up the fight. “God bless us. We kept going back to the same meeting. And over the next couple of years, I found myself starting to kind of feel connected to him. And I heard his story.”
As Shepard got to know him better, he said he began to understand the pain behind Dane’s behavior.
“His father shot himself in his house when he was a little boy. His mother came upstairs and said, ‘I’ll tell you what happened if you promise you won’t cry,'” Shepherd said. “So that little boy latched on to that. And then that little boy grew up without a father, just like I grew up without a father, and he was very much looking for male validation, and it took all these forms that I hated. And I’m sure he hated me.”
“I remember he got his share one time and I said: ‘I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but this is one of the best shares I’ve ever heard,'” the 51-year-old recalls. “Maybe a week or two later, one of his stock said, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think I’ve fallen in love with Dax.’ And then we became friends.”
Later, Shepherd said he would often visit Dane’s house, where they bonded over not having a father around and what it meant to be a man. “I fell in love with a very frightened man trying and wishing to become a man, and I told it,” he said. “I ended up loving him so much.”
Dane, known for his memorable roles as McSteamy Gray’s Anatomy And Cal Jacobs, father of Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). trance, He revealed that he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in April last year after experiencing symptoms for the first time a year and a half ago. He died in February at the age of 53.
“For someone who was so adamant about being so incredibly masculine and so incredibly fit, and who agreed to become the face of this disease, so completely diminished, I found it to be the bravest thing he did in all of these masculinity endeavors,” Shepherd said.
Both men have been open about their struggles with addiction. Dane also revealed that he was “abandoned”. Gray’s Anatomy Because he “wasn’t the same guy” they hired during his battle with addiction, during a June 24, 2024, appearance on Shepherd. Chair expert Podcast.
