Rebecca Gayheart Speaks Out After Eric Dane's Death, Reveals Emotional AI Voice Project
Eric Dane‘s wife Rebecca Gayheart is speaking out.
The 54-year-old actress spoke out for the first time since the Euphoria star’s passing to discuss a charity project Dane cared about deeply prior to his death due to ALS.
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Dane participated in a voice restoration project led by AI firm ElevenLabs in order to restore his ability to communicate with an synthetic voice created using past recordings, which would also help him leave a message behind to his daughters, Billie, 16, and Georgia, 14, per Variety.
He “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,” Rebecca explained to the outlet, revealing he was able to hear the voice recreation weeks before he died.
“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. And when I heard it, I cried. I think everyone in the room did.”
The company offers a lifetime software license and support services for free to those dealing with terminal neurological diseases, including ALS, pledging to help 1 million people with services that amount to $1 billion.
They also produced a series of docu-shorts to showcase the tool. Dane was meant to be one of the 11 people profiled, but his health took a turn for the worse by then. Still, Rebecca will participate in a panel alongside the shorts’ premiere.
“He wanted to advocate for love and for the movement [around ALS] and so I’m there to do this for him. 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,” she explained, adding that the family is “still in a state of shock” following his death.
“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,” she added.
“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.” To learn more about the voice platform, click here.
Eric Dane‘s official cause of death was confirmed in early March.