Eric Dane is being praised by his “Countdown” co-stars for how he’s handling his ALS diagnosis and using his platform to help others. Dane went public with his illness in April.
“I’m proud as hell at how he’s handling it with such grace [and] dignity,” Jensen Ackles told me at the Amazon MGM show’s Los Angeles premiere. “I had no doubt that he was going to handle it this way. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He knows I love him and support him with anything he needs.”
The premiere marked Dane’s first red carpet appearance since disclosing his diagnosis. “I feel good,” Dane told me after posing for photos on the red carpet with his filmmaker girlfriend Janell Shirtcliff. “It’s nice to be here with everybody and see the hours and hours of work that we put into this come alive on screen.”
Show creator and executive producer Derek Haas said, “I wasn’t surprised at how honest and open he is and how he puts others in front of himself, which is exactly the Eric that I know. He wants other people to know that they’re not alone if they get this diagnosis.”
“Countdown” follows an LAPD detective (Ackles) who joins a secret government task force headed by Dane’s character to try and stop a terrorist attack on Los Angeles.
Jessica Camacho, who plays agent Amber Oliveras, said the cast and crew have become a “family.”
But she also admitted being “terrified” when she first walked on set to work with Dane. “He has this power about him,” Camacho said. “He has this quiet confidence and it’s beautiful on camera. I was properly petrified but then five minutes in, I saw his warmth, I saw his playfulness, his charisma and it just became so comfortable and so at ease and we’re just such a work family.”
Dane talked extensively about living with ALS with Diane Sawyer during a June 16 interview on “Good Morning America.” “My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working,” the actor said, noting that his left arm has been getting weaker as well. “I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”
The former “Grey’s Anatomy” star was in Washington on Monday at U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s news conference announcing that several health insurance companies are going to simplify and reduce prior authorizations over the next 18 months.
“When that diagnosis hits and you find out that you’re sick, your life becomes filled with great uncertainty and that worst that we can do is add even more uncertainty for patients and their loved ones with unnecessary prior authorization,” Dane said. “Anything we can do to give patients more certainty with fewer delays is a worthwhile endeavor.”
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