Celebrity Lifestyle

Eric Dane on Art, The Last Ship, and Taco Tuesday

The actor formerly known as McSteamy opens up about his low-key life at home with his family
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Eric Dane has come a long way from Seattle’s Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. These days, the actor, who’s known for playing Dr. Mark Sloan (a.k.a. McSteamy) on Grey’s Anatomy, spends his time aboard a naval destroyer for the TNT drama The Last Ship, which airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT. The show finds Dane’s Captain Tom Chandler out at sea, and looking for a cure to a disease that has wiped out 80 percent of the world’s population

At home in California, though, the stakes aren’t so high for the actor: You’ll likely catch Dane lounging in his favorite parlor chair (after working 14-hour days, he deserves it) or playing in the pool with his daughters, Billie, 6, and Georgia, 4. Read on for a look at the actor’s life with his family and wife, actress and model Rebecca Gayheart.

Describe your home in five words or less. Country farmhouse—with modern elements.

What’s your favorite piece in your home? My grandmother’s Chippendale chairs—we have ten in our dining room. When she passed, she had a tremendous amount of great furniture in good condition, including stuff from the Ming dynasty. Rebecca had the chairs refurbished, so they’re pristine now.

What’s always in your fridge? Gatorade, yogurt, bagels, water, apples—typically any snack you’d want to give a kid that’s considered at least somewhat healthy. And mochi balls in the freezer.

If you could own any work of art what would it be? Where are you going to put the Sistine Chapel? The statue of David, right in my entryway. You walk in and there he is. Or maybe I’d put him in a different room every week, like “There’s David in the kitchen!”

What was the first thing you splurged on when you made it big? Art. It may have been a Ryan McGinley portrait, or wait, maybe a Sterling Ruby Maybelline that I think is on a butcher paper. Or maybe it was the Ed Ruscha that says OK on it.

Your dad was an architect and interior designer. Did you inherit that interest? I’ve always had a great feel for space and how objects occupy it. There’s a very mathematical, mechanical side to architecture, and I probably lean more toward that aspect of it, though I’m terrible at numbers. But that side appeals to me more than the decorating aspect.

What was your childhood home like? It was pretty white-picket-fence. I grew up in Northern California on the peninsula. It was a beautiful house, but it was very traditional. It wasn’t midcentury modern. I’m talking 1970s, early ’80s—design didn’t even go Wall Street until like 1986.

What was last playing on your TV? I was just telling someone that I never watch television. I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, I’ve never seen Breaking Bad. I can’t tell you one character outside of Walter White. It’s not because I don’t have time—I certainly have time to turn on the television—it just doesn’t do for me what it used to do. Television was a way to lose myself, to a degree, and I just don’t need that anymore. Now I spend time with the kids.

What’s on your bedside table? A pair of headphones, a remote, a clock, and my phone. Practical.

If you could only save one thing in your home, what would it be? We have some great art, so I’d probably save that. We have a great Mark Ryden, a Sterling Ruby, a couple of Ed Ruschas, and stuff my dad did—he passed away when I was seven. We also have a whole family wall of pictures upstairs, probably 35 of them. When Rebecca and I met, I was a struggling actor, but I had a couple of pieces and she had a couple of pieces, so we merged our collections. Art was always of interest to both of us, and when I started working consistently, we bought some more.

Most nights you eat dinner . . . We have dinner at 5:30 sharp every night, unless it’s Tuesday. Then it’s Taco Tuesdays, and we’ll have tacos and margaritas. Rebecca does a lot of the cooking, but I’m pretty handy in the kitchen when I want to be.

What music has been playing most often in your home of late? I listen to what my kids listen to now. My older daughter, Billie, is really into Adele. I’m kind of old-school. I’m a Jimi Hendrix fan, and I like a lot of stuff from the ’80s and ’90s. I get to know new music though my kids. It’s interesting how young kids are when they develop a certain affinity for music.

What famous person, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Maybe John Lennon. In this day and age, I think his opinion would be an interesting one to have out there.

You get home after a long day. The first thing you do is . . . go up to my bedroom and sit on one of these old, really comfortable leather parlor chairs. I’ll collapse and catch up with my wife.

What was the best-designed show you’ve ever worked on? The Last Ship. We work very closely with the U.S. Navy, and one of the perks is that we get a $3 billion ship to shoot on. When you’re in those confined spaces, it’s easy to believe you’re actually in that environment, and then I put on this uniform and I kind of walk a little taller and feel my way through the part. It’s a visceral experience. We rarely use green screen—everything is real. If we do build something, it’s done to the detail. You can’t tell the difference between the bridge on our set and the bridge on a real naval destroyer. The captain’s quarter and staterooms are a little bit bigger, because we need a little more room to shoot, but they’re almost exact replicas. Last year, the crew even did the bridge and galley of a submarine. Everything was modular; walls could be removed to allow the cameras to get to where they needed to be. It takes an incredible amount of time and talent.