Eric Dane (Euphoria), the actor who portrayed McSteamy on the his medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, is looking back at the behind-the-scenes conflict that the actor was going through at the time. According to Deadline, the actor opened up to the news source about his departure from the series. He touches on his struggles as an actor with substance abuse and how it affected his work as an actor.
Dane spoke to Deadline about his departure from Grey’s Anatomy. He described the departure and said that he “didn’t leave so much as I was let go.” This came with the actor’s long-running struggle with addiction to prescription drugs. Although the actor was sober prior to joining the Grey’s cast in 2006, during his time on the series, he revealed that he was “f**ked up longer than I was sober” while filming the series.
Dan explained that his departure was not solely because of his struggle, but that it was a factor that didn’t relieve any stress from it. He said, “They didn’t let me go because of that, although it definitely didn’t help,” the actor explained. “I was starting to become, as most of these actors who have spent significant time on a show, you start to become very expensive for the network. And the network knows that the show is going to do what it’s going to do irrespective of who they keep on it. As long as they have their Grey, they’re fine.”
He also spoke highly of Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Inventing Anna), creator of the series. Dane said that she was always looking out for the actors on the show. He continues, “I wasn’t the same guy they had hired. So I had understood when I was let go. And Shonda [Rhimes] was really great. She protected us fiercely. She protected us publicly. She protected us privately. … But I was probably fired. It wasn’t ceremoniously like, ‘You’re fired,’ it was just like, ‘You’re not coming back.’”
Dane was on Grey’s Anatomy from season two up until season 9 where his character got killed off following a massive plane crash.