While Dax Shepard is friends with Eric Dane these days, he admitted that he almost got into a physical fight with the Countdown and Euphoria actor during an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
On the latest episode of Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, he was joined by Brad Pitt, and they both spoke about their experiences attending Alcoholics Anonymous. Shepard revealed that there was a lot of tension between him and Dane early on. “Eric Dane, who I now fucking love, I have such a sweetness for him… But when we were first around each other, it was not good,” he admitted. “He threatened a dude in the meeting, and I said, ‘Let’s go, motherfucker.’”
Shepard continued to explain how the fight almost happened. “He goes, ‘If you hit that timer again, I’m gonna fucking throw you in that candle,’” Shepard continued. “And I go, ‘That’s it, motherfucker. Let’s go. Stand up, let’s go outside. He stands up, we go outside and I’m about the beat the fuck out of him—at an AA meeting, where we’re coming for healing and understanding.”
Thankfully, they didn’t throw hands despite the tension. “What’s great is, we’re friends now, and we told that story on the podcast, and it’s quite a hilarious beginning for us, and now I love him,” Shepard added.
In an episode of Shepard's podcast last June, Dane shared the story and admitted he was “not in the best space” at the time. “I may not have even been sober at the time,” he shared. “Dax is like, ‘What the fuck was that about, man?’ And just as I’m about to open my mouth, our sponsor comes out and gets in the middle of us.” He also shared that Shepard told him he “hated” him at first in a subsequent meeting, but grew to “really love” him.
Recently, Dane has been candid about his struggles with being diagnosed with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. “My left side is functioning, but my right side, [which is my dominant side], has completely stopped working,” the 52-year-old actor shared in a recent interview on Good Morning America.
