‘Brilliant Minds’ Boss Michael Grassi Talks ‘Emotional’ Eric Dane ALS Episode (Exclusive)

Monday’s special episode of Brilliant Minds featured guest star Eric Dane, and creator Michael Grassi broke it down with PopCulture.com.

In “Fire Fighter,” Dane’s Matthew is a firefighter who struggles to deal with his ALS diagnosis.

 The episode saw Matthew refusing to tell his family, consisting of his ex-wife Alicia (Mädchen Amick) and their daughter, who is soon entering her final semester of college. He doesn’t want to be a burden and is afraid they’d uproot their lives for him. This episode comes just months after Dane revealed his own ALS diagnosis in April, and Grassi discussed the importance of the story and more. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: With how important this story is, what was it like seeing it all come together?

Michael Grassi: It was emotional. It’s an emotional episode. I think when we come to medical drama sometimes, we want the fix, we want the cure. We want everything to be okay. I’ve seen stories on medical dramas in the past where someone comes in with some sort of illness, and then there’s a magical cure for them. And I think that’s not the kind of stories that we’re dealing with here.

I think that’s a big part of what Oliver Sacks dealt with in his work. It’s like there often isn’t a cure. There often isn’t a fix. But how do you find a way forward? How do you adapt? How do you sort of lean on others and let people in? And then how do you find your footing once you know that your life is going to be different? I think a lot of these conditions, when you’re dealing with them, you grieve things that you couldn’t do before, and that’s a big part of it as well.

So I think in watching it, and being on set, I think the whole cast and crew and the entire team involved really stepped up in a big way because I think we could all see parts of ourselves and our lives in not only Matthew but all these characters.

PC: A big chunk of the story is Matthew not wanting his family to find out because they’ll just wanna drop everything and take care of him, which they ultimately wanna do when they do find out. Why do you think this kind of reaction to ALS was important to highlight in the episode?

Grassi: I think there’s something in some people that they don’t want to be a burden to others. They don’t want people to upend their lives in order to help you, and I think that’s an important story to tell that sometimes letting people help is a gift to them because people do wanna help, and letting people in if you’re fortunate enough to have a family.

And then there’s someone like Sam, who’s also in this episode, our other patient of the week, who is estranged from his family, and Ericka had to find them. And of course, they wanna help him, but it’s gonna be really challenging because they have to move to New York, and that’s very difficult financially in order to help support him. But at the same time, even though they’re able to get support, it’s still not enough, and he’s still denied a transplant, even though there’s not enough support. So we’re just trying to show all of that nuance and how letting people in is an important part of the process when you’re dealing with the diagnosis.

PC: Towards the end, it’s revealed that everyone at the fire station was planning on pitching in, and there’s this beautiful scene involving the firefighters crashing the Thanksgiving dinner with people that Matthew saved coming along. How important do you think it was for him to see everyone come together for him and to see just how much they care for him and truly want to help him?

Grassi: Well, that scene is inspired by something that firefighters do. When a firefighter retires, they often do this sort of procession that we saw. And this is Wolf’s version of it. He wanted to sort of stage this gesture for Matthew so that Matthew could see that he’s dedicated his whole life to helping others, and he’s made a real impact on so many people’s lives. And he wanted to show Matthew that those people are all there for him today. I think that’s such a powerful moment where no one has to be alone in this, and there’s gonna be a community of people helping out. It won’t just be Mädchen’s character, it won’t just be his daughter. It will be all these people he’s helped in the past.

PC: There’s a very vulnerable scene between Alicia and Carol where Alicia opens up about everything in her relationship with Matthew and how different he’s been since 9/11. What was it like seeing that scene play out and the emotions coming from Mädchen?

Grassi: So emotional. Mädchen did a beautiful job with that scene. And to me, that scene is really important because it shows that Matthew, it’s not just because of his diagnosis that he’s not letting people in. This is somebody who has been through a lot and shut down a long time ago. This is an ongoing thing for a guy like Matthew. He saw a lot on the job, dealt a lot in his day-to-day, and he would come home, and he wouldn’t let anybody in because he wanted to protect them. And he wanted to keep being that person who was gonna be the protector.

I think over the course of the episode, we really see him struggle, but he finally comes to a place where he will start to let people in, which feels like a real journey for him. And it’s not just something that started within this episode, but it’s been sort of a long struggle in his marriage, and probably part of the reason why the marriage frayed in the first place, because he wouldn’t let her in.

PC: The episode ended with Matthew basically telling his story with Wolf right by his side, and it seemed to be a very real moment for Eric. How did that scene come about?

Grassi: Eric was incredible in that scene. We were shooting in a fire station. It was a beautiful day overall, and when we finished shooting that scene, Eric was so vulnerable, and his performance was just incredible, sort of sharing Matthew’s story. And the entire cast and crew were so moved by this that after we wrapped that scene, we clapped Eric out for about 10 minutes. It was beautiful, and I think we were all truly inspired by him and what he’s telling with this character and his story. It was an incredible moment that I will never forget, Megan.

New episodes of Brilliant Minds air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming on Peacock the next day.