Eric Dane thinks he’s been fired from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’.
The 51-year-old Euphoria star spoke about his departure from the long-running ABC series after playing Dr. Mark Sloan for six seasons from 2006 to 2012.
“I don’t feel like I quit, I feel like I got fired,” Dane admitted on Dax Shepard’s Show on Friday. “Armchair Experts” Podcast.
When Shepherd pointed out that Dane “struggled” with drug and alcohol addiction towards the end of his time on the series, Dane replied, “I struggled with it. It didn’t make me leave, but it definitely didn’t help me.”
Dane said he believes he was fired for financial reasons.
“Like most of the actors who’ve been on the show for a significant amount of time, I was starting to become a very expensive piece of the network,” he said.
“And the networks know what the show is trying to do no matter who they put on. As long as Gray is there, it’s fine.”
He went on to explain that he understood why producers decided to fire him, as he “was not the same person they hired.”
Dane also praised the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, for being “absolutely amazing” throughout the ordeal.
“She was fiercely protective of us. She protected us in public, she protected us in private…I love Shonda Rhimes, and she protected me, but I probably got fired,” Dane recalled.
“It wasn’t a formal, ‘You’re fired,’ it was just, ‘You’re not coming back,'” he said.
The “Bad Boys 2” actor said he was sober for “three or four years” before he was hired by “Grey’s,” but that he relapsed into drinking again during the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
“When I look back on my eight years on Grey’s Anatomy, I was drunk more times than I was sober, and that’s when things started to go wrong,” he said.
Dane’s character was killed in a plane crash depicted in the final episode of season 8. Though he survived the episode, his character passed away at the beginning of season 9.
He then guest-starred in season 17 alongside Chyler Leigh, who played his on-screen girlfriend Lexie Grey, whose character was also killed in the crash.
