ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
For a guy who made his big entrance wearing only a towel, Eric Dane -- dubbed "McSteamy" on "Grey's Anatomy" -- normally wears modesty on his sleeve.
"I've been in this business for 15 years, and I have had my ups and my downs," he says. "Being humble is the most natural way to be with all this."
In 2006, after doing little-noticed work in prime time, Dane suddenly took off.
Well, he didn't take it all off, but he came close.
Dane walked out of a bathroom in a scene on "Grey's Anatomy" wearing only a towel, and viewers couldn't stop staring. (They can see more of him, sort of, by tuning in 9 p.m. EDT Thursdays on ABC. The season finale is May 17.)
The scene not only took him from guest star to series regular, it also propelled him to magazine covers and dozens of "sexiest" lists in print and on the Internet.
"The towel scene has definitely done something for me," says Dane, 34, and very much married to actress Rebecca Gayheart. "I guess nobody has to guess what is under my T-shirt anymore."
And since Dane's character, Dr. Mark Sloan, became "McSteamy," few viewers actually know the character's real name.
So where did this guy come from all of a sudden?
Well, it wasn't so sudden.
After a series of one-episode parts on a variety of shows, six years ago Dane landed a recurring role on another medical show -- "Gideon's Crossing" -- but no one paid nearly this much attention to him.
Still, Dane says he's stumped as to why his "Grey's" role has been his breakthrough part. He's been acting on TV for well more than a decade with the same chiseled looks but without such fanfare.
"I don't know why the audience responds to certain things," he says. "As for 'Gideon's Crossing,' I guess it was just the wrong time for that show.
"When it comes to 'Grey's Anatomy,' I guess people can identify with the characters because they are so horribly flawed."
From his view, "Grey's" is filled with pretty people with ugly problems. Viewers like that.
An occasional towel scene now and then is OK, too.
On Web sites such as hunkdujour.com, where sexy celebrities get fawned over, Dane is much beloved.
"Eric Dane is mega-gorgeous and mega-sexy. At last, a really good reason to watch 'Grey's Anatomy,' " posted a fan with the screen name Hot Chocolate.
Dane's heard it before, and he isn't afraid that the towel scene and future such scenes might take away from his acting.
"It's not such a bad thing," he says. "The response from it has been so overwhelming that I don't see (such scenes) as a bad thing. It's flattering."
Not surprisingly, the well-toned Dane, who is from San Francisco, was a bit of a jock in school. "I never watched television growing up," he says.
But when he was injured playing baseball, he ended up needing to fulfill a school credit. "I got roped into doing a play," he says.
And he realized he loved it.
He had too much energy playing a 63-year-old in the play "All My Sons," so his teacher put weights on his legs, forcing him to shuffle.
After college, he moved to Los Angeles and landed small roles on such shows as "Saved by the Bell" and "Married ... With Children." Then came "Gideon's."
His film credits include "X-Men: Last Stand," in which he plays mutant Jamie Madrox, also known as the Multiple Man.
Regardless of his other credits, Dane now is resigned to the fact that the towel scene has burned into viewers' minds. Worse things have happened to actors, he says.
"That image has been everywhere," he says with a laugh. "I can live with that."
(Contact Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)
