Swayze: 'Pain helped my acting'

Patrick Swayze has credited the pain he feels as he battles pancreatic cancer for giving his acting an edge.

The movie star confounded experts when he signed up for a new TV series after discovering he had inoperable pancreatic cancer early last year, but he insists the illness gave him an inner rage he needed for the tense cop drama.

Swayze admits he refused all painkillers while he was working - because he didn't want to dull his senses. And so he acted through the pain.

He explains: "When you're shooting you can't do drugs. I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge off of it, 'cause it takes the edge off of your brain."