Entertainment
Why Eric ‘Let Go’ of Dane From ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
While it seems Grey’s anatomy has been on the air for forever (19 years to be exact), there is one character that has never been forgotten: Erik DaneIt’s Dr. Mark Sloan.
ABC’s long-running medical drama had many memorable deaths over the course of nearly two decades, but none were more chaotic than that of Sloan, also known as McSteamy.
The character was introduced in a 2006 Season 2 episode and stayed on until the Season 9 premiere in 2012, where he tragically died from injuries sustained in a plane crash.
Dane, 51, recently appeared on Dax Shepard‘S “Armchair Podcast” where he got candid about his departure from the Shonda Rhimes-created show went under.
“I think I was let go,” said the Euphoria the actor said, adding that he was suffering from addiction issues at the time of his departure.
In 2011, Daan entered a treatment center in California to solve his prescription drug problem.
However, he insisted that the producers “didn’t let me go because of that.”
Erik Dane
Getty Images“Although it certainly didn’t help. I started to become, as most of these actors who have spent a lot of time on a show, you start to become very expensive for the network,” he explained.
The Bad Boys: Ride or Die star continued, “And the network knows that the show is going to do what it’s going to do no matter who they keep on it. As long as they have their Gray, they’re fine.’
Ellen Pompeo has starred as the titular doctor, Meredith Gray, since the show’s inception in 2005. She stepped back from a series regular last year but remains an executive producer, a frequent guest star and narrates every episode.
The guys from Shondaland (Shonda Rhimes’ production company) have been making viewers swoon since Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005. Patrick Dempsey – whose Grey’s character Dr. Derek Shepherd was nicknamed ‘McDreamy’ – never bothered by his heartthrob status. “It’s not necessarily me, but it helps your ego,” Dempsey told Parade in 2008. Tony […]
Dane continued, “I wasn’t the same guy they hired. So I understood when I was let go. And Shonda was really great. She protected us fiercely. She protected us publicly. She protected us privately. …But I’m probably fired. It wasn’t solemn, “You’re fired,” it was just, “You’re not coming back.”
He then revealed that when he first signed on to the drama, he had already been sober for a few years. But instant fame from starring in a hit network series took its toll.
“If you go through the whole eight years Grey’s anatomyI was worked up for longer than I was sober. And then things started going sideways for me,” he admitted. “It was overwhelming, and I think I just wanted to pretend that it wasn’t that way and that I was comfortable with it. Pretend you’ve been there, but you haven’t been there.”
