The surprising way Johnny Depp is helping Eric Dane as the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ alum battles ALS

Johnny Depp has quietly stepped up for a friend in need.

We’re told the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star opened the doors of one of his Los Angeles homes to ailing pal Eric Dane — with a pay-what-you-can arrangement following the “Grey’s Anatomy” star’s devastating diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

“Eric has one less thing to worry about,” the insider tells Page Six. “He’s living basically rent-free in one of the homes Johnny owns above the Sunset Strip. He told Eric to pay whatever he could or — couldn’t for rent.”

We’re told Depp and Dane met through mutual friends years ago.

“As Eric struggles with ALS Johnny wanted to do what he could to ease the financial burden,” said the source.

Dane announced his diagnosis with the nervous system disease that causes loss of muscle control in April 2025. By June, he had lost the use of his right arm.

“My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working,” the “Euphoria” star said in an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. “I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”

Dane has thrown himself into advocacy work, joining the board of directors at Target ALS, which funds research aimed at finding treatments and a cure. In November, he played a firefighter battling ALS in an episode of the show “Brilliant Minds.”

In January, Dane was forced to cancel his appearance at the ALS Network’s Champions for Cures and Care Gala where he was set to be honored, “due to the physical realities of ALS” and not being “well enough to attend.”

The disease is also known as Lou Gehrig’s, after the famed Yankee was diagnosed in 1939. Scientist Stephen Hawking and Roberta Flack also suffered from the progressive, degenerative disease that eventually leads to death.

Dane isn’t the only one Depp has offered to help.

We hear the “Edward Scissorhands” actor — who owns multiple homes in the area — extended a similar flexible rent offer to Mickey Rourke.

Rourke, who starred with Depp in 2003’s “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” was evicted from his home in January after owing almost $60,000 in overdue rent.

The source tells us that “as of yet, Mickey hasn’t accepted the offer.”

He also turned down donations for a GoFundMe that had been set up by his manager. 

Reps for Depp, Dane and Rourke did not respond to request for comment.