Death in Hollywood: Eric Dane’s Final Advice to His Daughters in Netflix’s “Famous Last Words”

Dane’s death this week at 53 years old came after a battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which he revealed only 10 months ago. His wife, actress Rebecca Gayheart, and his two daughters, Billie Beatrice Dane, 16, and Georgia Geraldine Dane, 14, were with him in his final moments. They defined his personal life and are the key topic in his final sit-down interview, which also delved into his father’s suicide and his own battle with drugs and alcohol.

The filmed conversation between Dane and television writer Brad Falchuk, which became available on Netflix on Friday, took place in November.

Dane then recalls times spent at the beach in Santa Monica, Hawaii and Mexico with his wife and girls, the Euphoria actor becomes momentarily choked up. “I see you now playing in the ocean for hours, my water babies. Those days, pun intended, were heaven. I want to tell you four things I’ve learned from this disease, and I hope you don’t just listen to me. I hope you’ll hear me.”

“I shouldn’t have done this. I never should’ve that.’ No more. Out of pure survival, I am forced to stay in the present. But I don’t want to be anywhere else. The past contains regrets. The future remains unknown. So you have to live now. The present is all you have. Treasure it. Cherish every moment.”

“That love eventually got me through my darkest hours, my darkest days, my darkest year. I still love my work, I still look forward to it, I still want to get in front of a camera and play my part. My work doesn’t define me, but it excites me,” he said.

Friends were a large part of Dane’s life, seemingly in his final year, and he tells his daughters to choose them wisely. “Find your people and allow them to find you. And then give yourselves to them. The best of them will give back to you. No judgment, no conditions, no questions asked, he tells them on the show.

Dane then explains how the friends he made in his life showed up for him as his health began to decline — in fact, he indicated that “every single one has stepped up.”

Dane’s concluding advice seems to reflect how he lived his final days, as he advises them to face adversity with resilience and dignity. This is the superpower he has and which he is passing down to them, Dane says.

While the show concluded with Dane’s legacy, earlier in the episode, Falchuk and Dane’s conversation deals  with his past, which includes his parents, the loves in his life and the career that made him a TV sensation. Dane’s opening up about the death of his father and the demons that were part of his life delivers a rare intimacy in the interview. Dane discusses the emotional trauma that can persist, particularly around the death of his father, who struggled with alcoholism and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound when the actor was seven.

The actor entered California treatment center in 2011 for a prescription drug addiction, and in 2017, his struggle with depression led him to take a leave of absence from the television series The Last Ship, halting production for over a month. It was shortly after this that Gayheart filed for divorce after 14 years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences” with Dane. In March of last year, Gayheart filed to dismiss the divorce petition after seven years of separation, as they seemed to give their marriage another shot.

Netflix’s new, long-form interview series is based on the Danish TV format of the same name — Det Sidste Ord.  It includes “icons who have made indelible marks on society and culture,” and the interviews are conducted with extreme discretion.

Dane’s interview is the second of the episode of the series on Netflix.

The premiere interview was with primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodball before her death at 91 in October.