The Ravine Interview: Eric Dane on Exploring Tragedy in Emotional

ComingSoon spoke to The Ravine star Eric Dane about his newly released thriller, which is based on true events, his acting career, and the success of Euphoria.

“When an unspeakable crime rocks a peaceful community, family and friends are left to wonder if they overlooked the murderer among them or if there might be more to the story,” reads the official synopsis for the film. “Inspired by true events, this haunting thriller stars Eric Dane, Teri Polo, Peter Facinelli, and Leslie Uggams.”

Tyler Treese: The Ravine is such an emotional story and it all begins with a gutting tragedy. You’re no stranger to dramatic scenes and bearing your all. So can you talk me through just how you prepare for such heavy themes and scenes in this film?

Eric Dane: Well, I mean, there are a few ways you can go to get there. You can draw on your own personal experiences. You can do your best to inhabit the character and, given the circumstances, try to stay present and, and be a part of that and engaged and see where that takes you. Every actor’s got their own process. For me, I just try to stay as present as I can possibly be because it gives me a lot of room for reacting and helps me listen a lot more,

The novel was written by Robert Pascuzzi, and I know you two have become friends after working on this film. How did your talks with Robert help craft your portrayal here?

You know they didn’t necessarily inform my character, the work I did on that, but it was nice to sort of… You cover so little of the story when you turn a book into a movie. You don’t really know what specifics you’re going to touch on. So the stuff that wasn’t in the script was nice to have the blanks filled in, and obviously, it happened to Bob and he was very articulate in the way that he conveyed to me what had happened. Just to understand the world you’re working in is a huge help.

The film tackles a lot of complicated subject matter, especially concerning faith. Your character has this great line: “If God cares about the grieving, then why wouldn’t he prevent it?” And I think that’s something that almost everybody has asked themselves at one point. So what about the script really connected with you?

I think the overall themes of forgiveness and hope and acceptance. I thought it was a great story. Despite at its core is such a tragic sort of event. Like you said, Bob Pascuzzi is a dear friend of mine right now, and it’s great to work. It’s even better when you’re working with your friends.

Starring opposite you, Teri Polo does such a great performance in this as well. How was it working off of her on these really emotional scenes?

Well, she gives so much, and she’s so sincere in her delivery of a lot of this stuff. It’s real easy to react to when you have somebody that’s so generous with what they’re offering. Teri was just great to work with, as a side note, she’s a phenomenal actress and she was a lot of fun to hang with.

There’s this interesting question of if you really ever know somebody as your character’s friend commits this murder-suicide. I know you’ve played a lot of characters in the past that have mysterious pasts. So what did you enjoy most about kind of being on the other side in The Ravine? You’re trying to figure things out. You’re not really a detective, but you still have that mystery element and you’re revealing things.

Teri was really great at depicting the stuff  Kelly [Pascuzzi], went through, but Bob did approach this as like a detective. I don’t want to say he was detached, but, he had a sort of aerial view of the circumstances, looking at it from like 10,000 feet up, which I think sort of insulated him from really feeling the weight of all of this. So that’s kind of how I approached it. I approached it looking at things from an aerial view and trying to piece together the situation, as opposed to getting caught up in the actual specifics and the circumstances. I went about it in a way where I was trying to figure it out for myself, as well as figure it out for everybody else.

In the past, you spoke about taking a year off from acting after The Last Ship, as you weren’t finding any real joy in it. With Euphoria and The Ravine, have you found that joy again?

Absolutely, and it was very relieving to feel that again. I didn’t know if that feeling was ever going to come back, you know? It was super refreshing to be able to find a new love and passion for the craft.

Early on, when you were first breaking into the industry, you appeared on a lot of iconic sitcoms. Saved by the Bell, The Wonder Years, Married…With Children, Roseanne. When you were coming up and doing these guest spots on these really beloved shows, what really stuck out about that time period?

I was a struggling actor just trying to work, and it’s great to work on jobs and on TV shows that are that visible, with that much exposure and that beloved. It’s great to be an actor. It’s even better when people are actually showing up to watch your work.

What’s it like with Euphoria where the fans are just, oohing and ahhing over every twist and turn? I have to imagine that’s so satisfying to see from your perspective.

It’s satisfying to see that we have such a huge audience spanning more than a few generations that are appreciating the work we’re doing. I think it exceeded everybody’s expectations, but we knew we had something that we were all proud of and worthy of that kind of visibility, but the 17 million viewers a week is fun. It’s nice.

You get to work with so much young talent in that show as well. Some of the great scenes were with you and Javon Walton in Season 2. How rewarding is it getting to work with these younger actors that are still honing their craft and are so passionate?

Yeah, it’s fun to see the spark. It’s fun to see them dig deeper and try to understand that acting is not just memorizing your lines, hitting a mark, and spitting out words. So seeing young actors who are discovering the love for the craft in real-time, as they’re doing it, is super rewarding. It’s gratifying, and it’s a lot of fun to see.

Obviously, the big cliffhanger is that Cal gets arrested, but your arc in Season 2 came to a head with you fulfilling your role as a father in the show. How important was it to show that arc, and to see Cal step up as a father?

I think some of it needed to come full circle and, you know, Cal just can’t stay unhinged. At the end of the day, he’s a father with a family. The circumstances are a little bit extraordinary, but as far as the dynamic between him and Nate goes, it’s father and son. That was important for me to get across. I know it was important for Sam, and it just adds another dimension to Cal, which is always nice.

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