TCA Press Tour: ‘Beast’ makers talk about Patrick Swayze

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Just two days after viewers watched Patrick Swayze tell Barbara Walters during an ABC interview that he’s ‘been going through hell and I’ve only seen the beginning of it,’ the actor checked himself into the hospital to be treated for pneumonia.

Swayze, who has been fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer for the last year, is the star of a new A&E series, ‘The Beast,’ which premieres on Jan. 15. Swazye was diagnosed after he had shot the pilot. The illness kept him from attending the press tour on Friday to promote the drama with his co-star Travis Fimmel (‘Tarzan’) and the writers and producers of the show.

‘’One thing I’m not gonna do is chase staying alive,’’ Swayze told Barbara Walters in his first interview since the diagnosis. ‘’You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won’t live.’’

His colleagues attested to that, and a lot more, during a Q&A with the TV press. The following are excerpts (questions are paraphrased) of comments by ‘The Beast’ co-creators William Rotko and Vincent Angell; show runner John Romano; pilot director Michael Dinner; and Fimmel.

Q: In light of today’s sad news, where is your head at today?

Fimmel: It’s just been an absolute inspiration for me and I’m sure the other guys. He’s an amazing guy. You can’t help but to respect him. And I can’t say enough good stuff about the guy. He’s an inspiration. He makes a little thing seem so not important.

Angell: We would, you know, as hard as it is to imagine, you forget about it when you’re working hours a day and you’re on the set with him and, you know, usually most of us would get tired before he would.... And in light of the news today, it’s just, I think for him, a bump in the road. You know, he had a little sniffle, as he said on ‘Barbara Walters,’ you know, when we were shooting, and he missed a day of work. But I think it’s, you know, like I said, a bump in the road and we’re all wishing him well.

Q: A lot of people who have seen the show think it’s one of his best performances. Do you think those challenges brought out something different in him as an artist?

Romano: Everybody who writes, produces, directs the show, they’re aware that he is bringing the force of his own personal struggle into that performance. That’s what you’re seeing. And when you say how good his performance is, you’re seeing what we see. And all of us who write and do the show, we work in the shadow of a tremendous act of courage. And you probably feel a little this morning when you heard that he couldn’t show up this morning, as much as he wanted to. That’s how we do the show, but he does it five days a week, 12 hours a day. Directors like Michael drive you crazy in the middle of the night in lousy weather. Patrick loves putting it up there. And, yes, that’s the source of it, and I think you’re sniffing that out. It’s the truth.

Q: After he was diagnosed, did you consider making the show with a different actor?

Rotko: The answer’s no. When we found out Patrick had cancer, you know, it was four hours after we found out we got picked up. Then we dealt with the issue of Patrick. From the moment Patrick found out he had cancer, from the first phone calls with some of the Sony executives that are present today, he said, ‘I’m going to do this show.’ And I think you probably -- if you all watched the Barbara Walters special, you see the type of cowboy personality that he has, and that was his approach, and we immediately glommed on to that. We never considered another actor for the part.

Q: Can the show continue with a second season even if Patrick is unable to work? (Production on the first season is complete.)

Romano: Believe it or not, we have experienced mornings like this in the making of the show. So for
us, we have nothing before us that says that we just can’t continue making the show we’re making starring Patrick Swayze and Travis Fimmel. We’re all aware how the show may need to grow around him. My feeling is that, as I said, we’re talking our cues from Patrick, and I gotta tell you, the only rough conversations I ever have with Patrick is when he reads a script and says, ‘Are you writing me down? I’m not climbing enough walls in this episode. Do you think I can’t do it?’

Q: Travis, when you work with Patrick, can you see the physical strain?

Fimmel: No. As I say, you can hardly tell with the guy. He’s such a man, you know. The sickest thing about him on the set is probably his jokes.

--Maria Elena Fernandez