Exactly one day after the death of actor Eric Dane, a new show appeared on Netflix. Entitled Famous Last Words, it consisted of an interview with none other than Eric Dane himself. While at first the timing of the release might have seemed coincidental at best and exploitative at worst, the reality of the interview was something else entirely.
Dane, it transpired, had recorded the interview in full knowledge that he was dying. What’s more, he conducted it on the understanding that it would only be released in the event of his death. Because this is the conceit behind Famous Last Words. It exists as a living obituary, as an opportunity to go on the record for the very last time to contextualise their life in a manner of their choosing.
Clearly then, it is an emotional thing to sit through. In a room with host Brad Fulchuk (and nobody else; the cameras are all unmanned and fixed in position), Dane went about describing how he was coping with late-stage ALS, noting that his battles with drugs and alcohol had left him familiar with the sensation that his inside did not match his outside. He discussed the regrets he had, and the struggle to forgive himself for his past mistakes. And then, seven minutes from the end, Fulchuk left the room.
What followed was undeniably powerful. Looking straight to camera, Dane addressed his two teenage daughters, urging them to stay in the present and fight through adversity. “You are my heart,” he concluded. “You are my everything. Good night. I love you. Those are my last words.”
This was the second episode of Famous Last Words. The first aired last October, two days after the death of Jane Goodall. In that episode, similarly recorded before her death in the knowledge that it would be released afterwards, she urged viewers not to give up hope, reminding them that individuals can make a difference. Presumably, more episodes will come in time.
Based on the Danish format Det Sidste Ord, Famous Last Words has the potential to become a jewel in Netflix’s crown. It will never get gigantic ratings. People are unlikely to absent-mindedly have it on in the background while they scroll through TikTok on their phones. It is an idea that demands your full attention, and quite honestly it needs a bit of a run-up. There’s something unmistakably confronting about watching people reflect on their lives in the wake of their imminent death. It won’t be for everyone.
But it is important. There’s a closeness here to what Marc Maron used to do on WTF, where he would reissue interviews with people after their death. But this is far more solemn and tender. At the time they were recorded, Maron’s interviews were just interviews recorded while the subjects were alive and healthy. Any elegiac gravitas you might have felt, you had to infer yourself.
Famous Last Words is far more explicit than that. Everyone involved knows that the subject has reached the final stretch, and watching them attempt to pass on the knowledge and wisdom that they have amassed while they still can is profoundly moving.
And it will only become more moving as the library grows. You wonder if, as its reputation continues to blossom, Famous Last Words will become something that more and more people agree to do. To have a chance to set the record straight, to remind everyone who you really were before your legacy becomes distorted by other voices, must be extremely tempting.
And as the library grows, we might find ourselves with a better understanding of how humans deal with the end of their life. Just two episodes in we have seen a difference in who the subjects choose to address; the wide-scope god’s eye view of humanity offered by Goodall, and Dane’s laser focus on his daughters.
More will come. I’m reminded, a little, of last year’s documentary Pee-wee as Himself. Unbeknownst to the crew, Paul Reubens was dying of cancer during filming. While he was often elusive during the on-camera interviews, he sent the director a voicemail the day before he died, where he opened up about his 2002 arrest, where art was seized that the police categorised as child pornography. His hurt about the incident was palpable. “More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documentary was to let people see who I really am and how painful and difficult it was to be labeled something that I wasn’t … a paedophile,” he said. “I wanted somehow for people to understand that my whole career, everything I did and wrote, was based in love.”
So there will inevitably be episodes of Famous Last Words where subjects try to correct the historical record, or will still try to settle old scores. Some subjects will be scared, others angry, many performative. However they react, though, what an honour to allow us to see them like this. A couple of decades from now, Famous Last Words is going to be one of the most fascinating resources we will have. What a thing this is.
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