Dempsey praised his fellow TGIT heartthrob for being “incredibly courageous in the face of this horrible disease.”
Patrick Dempsey is standing with his former Grey’s Anatomy costar Eric Dane through thick and thin.
Two of TV’s most beloved heartthrobs maxed out the barometer at Seattle Grace together for 10 seasons. Though it’s been seven years since they last both appeared on Grey’s, Dempsey recently proved that ties like those aren’t easily severed — especially in the face of Dane’s ALS diagnosis, which he revealed last May.
The star of the upcoming crime thriller series Memory of a Killer shared in a Wednesday interview with Parade that he “spoke to [Dane] a few weeks ago. I’ve been texting with him. We were trying to get him in [Killer] but unfortunately, the progression of his disease made it virtually impossible. But I was happy to see that he was here in Toronto working on, I think, another medical drama.”
Dempsey was referring to Brilliant Minds, the NBC medical procedural starring Zachary Quinto that Dane guested on in November. On the season 2 episode “The Fire Fighter,” Dane played Matthew Ramati, a firefighter recently diagnosed with ALS who struggles to share the news with his family. Series creator Michael Grassi recalled the day the episode aired that Dane’s portrayal was so powerful, he received “a 10-minute standing ovation after shooting that scene.”
Though Dempsey wasn’t able to make a spot for Dane on his new series work, he explained, “I do try to stay in touch and see how he’s doing. I think he’s been incredibly courageous in the face of this horrible disease.”
Dempsey continued, “He’s such a wonderful human being. He has such a great sense of humor, and he’s so intelligent. I’ve always enjoyed working and being around Eric. It’s heartbreaking. It really is. For him and for his family. You feel for them when you see this terrible disease and how quickly it attacks the body. But he’s bringing a lot of light to that, and he’s using his platform in a positive way. I wish him the best.”
A week after he appeared on Brilliant Minds, Dane opened up about the grim realities of living with the neurological disease, which progressively weakens muscle control and has no cure.
“I have no reason to be in a good spirit at any time, on any given day,” he shared at the time. “I don’t think anybody would blame me if I went upstairs in my bedroom, crawled under the sheets, and spent the next two weeks crying.”
Still, Dane has kept hope alive by becoming an ambassador for the nonprofit advocacy organization I AM ALS, which fights to discover a cure.