Eric Dane's Posthumous Memoir Recalls On-Set Fight With Josh Duhamel

Eric Dane's posthumously released memoir, "My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments," reveals a physical confrontation with Josh Duhamel on the set of NBC's "Las Vegas" in 2004 — a fight Dane says began with a pulled tie and a herniated disc.

Dane guest starred on two episodes of "Las Vegas" in Season 2, while the series ran for five seasons between 2003 and 2008 with Duhamel opposite James Caan. Dane filmed his episode with a herniated disc in his neck and asked Duhamel to avoid grabbing him by the tie during a fight scene (via Entertainment Weekly).

What happened on set?

Dane writes that Duhamel promised to comply, then broke that promise three times.

"We're about to film a fight scene. I ask the lead, Josh Duhamel, to please not grab me by the tie during the scene. He promises me he won't," Dane writes. "The director calls 'Action,' and Josh pulls on my tie. Fire rips through my neck. I go, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, we have to stop.' He apologizes, I grunt from the pain, and then, take two. He pulls on my tie again."

After the second take, Dane warned a producer: "You better rein in your boy." Duhamel apologized again and said he "got caught up in the moment." On take three, Dane writes, the tie was grabbed once more.

"I whip off my suit coat and I say, 'Let's go, you pussy ass actor,'" Dane continues. "I ball my hands into fists and I come at him. Nobody calls 'Cut,' the camera keeps rolling, and to the world who sees the whole nasty scene, I'm the aggressor, the hothead, I start the fight."

Does Dane regret it?

Yes, explicitly. The actor calls the incident far from his proudest moment and offers a direct apology in the book's pages.

"Josh and I have seen each other since and we're cool. But I want to say it again. Josh, I was wrong. I should've walked away. I'm sorry, dude," Dane writes.

The "Las Vegas" appearance came two years before Dane's breakthrough role as Dr. Mark Sloan on Season 2 of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Before that, he had built a steady television resume with guest roles on "Roseanne" and "Married… with Children," plus recurring parts on "Charmed" and "Gideon's Crossing."

What has Duhamel said?

Duhamel has acknowledged his own on-set intensity. Speaking on "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" earlier this year, he described going to "pretty extreme places in my head" to access his characters, including "Las Vegas" protagonist Danny McCoy — a former U.S. Marine dealing with PTSD while apprenticing under a casino magnate.

"When I got on set, people would be like, 'Whoa, what the fuck is wrong with this dude?'" Duhamel said. "I was on the show 'Las Vegas,' and in the second season my character had gotten deployed to Iraq and he came back and he had seen some shit, and he was in a real dark place… That was the only way I knew how to do it, was to get into this place and stay there. [I] didn't talk to anybody. I was just, sort of, in it. And people didn't want to be around me. And people would, sort of, avoid me and it scared people a little bit, including me."

"My Book of Days: A Memoir in Moments" is now available for purchase. The memoir gives readers Dane's own account of a career that spanned more than two decades of network television.