NEED TO KNOW
- Jensen Ackles says his Countdown costar Eric Dane is “a total stud”
- Ackles spoke highly of Dane at the premiere of the new Prime Video show this week, telling PEOPLE exclusively that Dane “has such a command of scenes”
- Dane also appeared at the premiere, which comes nearly three months after he revealed exclusively to PEOPLE that he’s been diagnosed with ALS
Jensen Ackles is showing his Countdown costar Eric Dane some major love.
At the show’s Wednesday, June 18 premiere in Los Angeles, Ackles, 47, opened to PEOPLE about working with the Grey’s Anatomy alum, saying the actor is “a total stud.”
Both Dane, 52, and Ackles appeared on the red carpet of the premiere. The event marked the first time Dane has attended a red carpet event since announcing his ALS diagnosis in April.
“He has such a command of scenes and the set just in his stillness and how just his quiet leadership, and it’s something that he brings from off set too,” Ackles tells PEOPLE of Dane. “I mean, he does that when the cameras aren’t rolling.”
He continued: “There’s just a quiet leadership to him that I truly learned from. So to get to mix it up with them on screen, I had to bring it.”
Dane plays Nathan Blythe on the Prime Video show, which also stars actress Violett Beane, who spoke highly of her costar at the premiere.
“Oh, he’s a phenomenal man. Phenomenal man,” Beane told PEOPLE of Dane. “And I mean, we were blessed all the time with little nuggets of wisdom and just how he would show up on set and yeah, I’m so glad he’s here today and I can’t wait to hang out with him.”
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Countdown series creator, Derek Haas, said that Dane’s leadership qualities were evident almost immediately upon their first meeting.
“If you spend five minutes with that guy, he is a leader. He’s very intelligent,” Haas told PEOPLE. “He also, when he walks into a room, every head turns his way. And when he speaks, you close your mouth and you listen.”
Haas added those characteristics helped inform the character Dane plays in the show. “That’s really what I was going for with Nathan Blythe … when you do a television show, as opposed to a limited series or a movie, you really start to merge the actor and their own personality with the character that you wrote.”
Dane’s appearance at the Countdown premiere comes after he revealed exclusively to PEOPLE back in April that he’s been diagnosed with ALS, adding that he was “grateful” for his family as he “navigates this next chapter.”
“I feel fortunate that I am able to continue working,” Dane, who also stars as the Jacobs family patriarch on Euphoria, added.
Dane is married to Rebecca Gayheart, and the couple share two children, Billie Beatrice, 15, and Georgia Geraldine, 13.
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Countdown premieres June 25 on Prime Video.
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