Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane revealed real reason he was ‘fired’ from show
The 52-year-old actor played Dr Mark Sloan for six seasons on the long-running programme from 2006 to 2012
Grey’s Anatomy star, Eric Dane, once revealed the real reason why he was ‘fired’ from the show.
Fans of the hit series will remember when his character, Dr Mark Sloan, was put on life-support following a pretty devastating plane crash in the season eight finale.
While many viewers hoped the whole ordeal was nothing but a fever dream, they were soon met with the reality that he’d been killed off after the character succumbed to his injuries and died peacefully with his friends by his side in the season nine premiere.
While viewers found it hard to let go of one of the show’s most iconic stars, they were later blindsided to discover that the actor hadn’t actually wanted to say goodbye when he did.
Instead, he claims he was ‘probably fired’ from the TV show by producers in 2012, speaking out on his exit in a bombshell interview.
Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast some months back, Dane, 52, – who played ‘Dr McSteamy’ on the show for six seasons from 2006 to 2012 – began his argument by claiming: “I didn’t leave so much as I think I was let go.”
Podcast host Dax Shepard then went on to ask the actor about his prior struggles with both drugs and alcohol addiction, and whether or not they affected his exit.
“I was struggling,” Dane replied, adding, however: “They didn’t let me go because of that, although it definitely didn’t help.”
In fact, he eluded to the possibility that, having become one of Grey’s Anatomy’s most in-demand actors, he’d simply become ‘too expensive’.
“I was starting to become – as most of these actors who have spent significant time on the show – you start to become very expensive for the network,” he explained.
“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 were fine.”
During the series eight finale, Dane’s character Dr Sloan – joined by co-stars Chyler Leigh (Lexie), Patrick Dempsey (Derek), Ellen Pompeo (Meredith), Sandra Oh (Cristina), and Jessica Capshaw – was involved in a major aviation incident whilst on the way to perform surgery on conjoined twins.
Whilst his on-screen love interest Lexie is killed by debris, Dr Sloan survives but is placed on life support due to the extensive injuries he sustained.
The ninth series subsequently sees him reappear in flashbacks, but his machine is turned off as per his own wishes after 30 days.
Despite his premature departure, Dane now says that the show’s producer Shonda Rhimes had his back during the behind-the-scenes awkwardness.
“She protected us fiercely,” he claimed. “She protected us publicly, she protected us privately. I love Shonda Rhimes and she protected me but I was probably fired.
“It wasn’t ceremoniously like, ‘You’re fired,’ it was just like, ‘You’re not coming back’.”
After he left the show, Dane says he endured a dry-spell when it comes to work, claiming his career went ‘sideways’.
“If you take the whole eight years I was on Grey’s Anatomy, I was f***ked up longer than I was sober and that was when things started going sideways for me,” he explained.
Since then, however, the actor has gone on to land roles as Cal Jacobs in gritty coming-of-age hit series Euphoria, as well as in horror-comedy film American Carnage.
