Eric Dane “just had this way of speaking,” his wife Rebecca Gayheart Dane remembers.
The widow of the “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria” star is speaking out for the first time since Eric Dane’s death on Feb. 19, in support of a charitable initiative that was deeply important to the actor. Dane died at the age of 53 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
In the final weeks of his life, Dane took part in a voice restoration project championed by AI firm ElevenLabs. It was a means of restoring his ability to communicate — via a synthetic voice created using past recordings from Dane’s voice – as well as an effort to leave an important part of himself behind for his daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14.
Dane “was really excited about it, because he was losing his voice, and it was becoming more difficult for him to communicate each and every day. So it became sort of urgent,” Gayheart Dane tells Variety.
Weeks before he died, Dane was able to hear how ElevenLabs recreated his voice with precision from an array of past recordings that the actor provided. ElevenLabs
“He was waiting anxiously to hear it, and when we got it from ElevenLabs it was a really big moment. It was a powerful moment. We played it, and Eric became visibly emotional,” Gayheart Dane says. “And when I heard it, I cried. I think everyone in the room did.”
AI firm Eleven Labs has produced 11 docu shorts depicting the use of its Voice
ElevenLabs has pledged to provide a lifetime software license and support services for free to those who suffer from terminal neurological diseases such as ALS, which gradually strip away a person’s ability to speak. The company, primarily based in New York and London, specializes in audio technology and offers a vast database of licensed and copyright-compliant voices that uses can access as an AI platform. ElevenLabs has pledged to help 1 million people with services that amount to $1 billion.
To help spread the word, the company has produced a series of 11 docu-shorts, “11 Voices,” profiling a handful of the more than 7,000 people who have been helped by its technology and the voice restoration initiative. Dane had been scheduled to be one of the 11 people profiled for the series, but then his health began to deteriorate, which made filming impossible. “11 Voices” is set to debut March 13 at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Gayheart Dane will take part in a panel session tied to the premiere that was to have featured Dane.
“He wanted to advocate for love and for the movement [around ALS] and so I’m there to do this for him,” she says. “For a million people to get a voice to be able to communicate with their children or their loved ones or their caretakers or their doctors or in their job — this is a really huge movement.”
Gayheart Dane says her family is “still in a state of shock” at Dane’s passing after being diagnosed with ALS in 2024. The adversity that her family faced head-on brought out the best in many people around them, she says.
“I just want to thank everybody for being so kind to us during the last couple of years. It’s been challenging and meaningful, and people are kind,” Gayheart Dane says.
“I’m having trouble receiving all of the support and love coming at me from every which way because of Eric and the [entertainment] community that’s so generous with their time. They’ve been holding me and the girls up the last two weeks, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere. I think they’re in it for the long haul. Hollywood gets a bad rap. That kind of makes me mad, because we have a lovely community of people, and I’m so grateful for them.”
ElevenLabs’ AI system is fine-tuned to absorb every syllable and nuance of a person’s natural speaking voice from pre-existing recordings. The ability to provide something that is close to the real thing will be groundbreaking for families touched by ALS, Cerebral Palsy, Motor Neuron disease and other debilitating illnesses.
Mati Staniszewski, cofounder of New York-based ElevenLabs, says the voice restoration project is an example of using AI tools to enhance one of the characteristics that makes us unique as humans.
“Just being able to help people bring a little bit of their identity back, bring that incredible element of what makes us human, and see that both for the individual and also for people around them – that is incredibly motivating for us of what the technology can do for the world,” says Staniszewski. “I think there’s nothing better than seeing the impact of technology for good and seeing the happiness of people that use it. We’d love to give it to as many people as need it.”
A few days after Dane got his ElevenLabs voice system, Dane and Gayheart Dane played it for their daughters.
“They were like, that’s not a recording. That’s your voice. That’s you. So it was spot on. He just had this way of speaking, and they captured it so beautifully,” Gayheart Dane says.
The couple’s teenage daughters, “signed off on it, and we were thrilled to have it because we knew what was coming down the pike,” Gayheart Dane says. “We were all really struggling with the weight loss that he was already experiencing. Knowing we had that in our back pocket, just felt really good. I’m sad, and I know Eric is too, that we didn’t ever get to really use it. But what I do know is that he would want as many people as possible to have access” to voice restoration technology.
For Dane, given his legacy as an actor, the voice archive is particularly meaningful.
“Your voice is such a big part of your craft and you’re a storyteller. He really understood how meaningful having the voice was. As his speech started to decrease, his ability to speak went away. He did lose a certain part of himself. He wasn’t able to express things in his own very special way. So he really understood how meaningful it was and the extraordinary honor giving someone back their voice and what that would feel like for others, and he wanted to make sure that he did everything he could do to make that happen,” Gayheart Dane says. “11 Voices is a great movement, and I know he’s happy that this is getting done. He could not be happier that a million people will get their voices back — that I know.”
ElevenLabs has made its mark over the past few years with its technology and by its focus on engaging in high-profile licensing deals with actors, family estates and by negotiating a groundbreaking AI agreement with SAG-AFTRA. The company has made an conscious effort to be seen as respectful of creative rights and copyright concerns amid the grave fears that AI will be a Hollywood jobs killer.
“I’ve been learning more about ElevenLabs, and all the ways that they use someone’s voice, and all the ways of a patient who’s experienced voice loss can use the restored voice that they give them. It’s really incredible, because it’s just so realistic,” Gayheart Dane says. “What we don’t remember is that our voice is such a big part of who we are.”
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