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Inside the Belly of 'The Beast with Travis Fimmel, William Rotko, and John Romano
by Jordan Riefe
Over the course
of the past few months, Patrick Swayze has returned
to the limelight after completing work on his
new TV series, The Beast, which debuts
on A&E on January 15. Patrick's return to the
spotlight has been emotional for all of his
fans given their excitement to see the beloved
Dirty Dancing actor carve out a new identity
on the small-screen while battling pancreatic
cancer. Leading up to the premiere of The
Beast, the cast and creators of The Beast
sat down at the TCAs in Los Angeles to talk
to the press about the show and Swayze's gritty
role as FBI agent Charles Barker. However, on
the morning of the TCA event for The Beast,
Patrick Swayze was hospitalized for pneumonia
and couldn't attend to address the awaiting
group of journalists, which we were a part of.
 As thoughts of Patrick Swayze and his battle with cancer were fresh on the minds of co-star Travis Fimmel, writer William Rotko, and co-executive producer John Romano, all three revealed what it's like to work with Swayze, the inspiration they draw from him, and how Patrick's struggles with cancer have brought out the best of him as an actor.
Travis Fimmel on how
Patrick Swayze's illness is affecting him:
"It's just been an absolute inspiration for me ... He's an amazing guy, you can't help but respect him. And I can't say enough good stuff about the guy. He's an inspiration. He makes the little things seem so not important."
John Romano on Patrick's
illness:
"The amazing thing making a show, or making a movie, is [that it's] very rigorous, and especially a very physical show like this in a place where the conditions [vary]. I mean I joke that Chicago, if it weren't for the weather, we'd all live there. It's one of my favorite cities but there are a lot of extremes there. It can be very hot in the summer and bitter cold in the winter. It was when we were shooting the pilot. And so any actor working under the circumstances, on a street based show, it's not easy. And to see this guy, who's a pretty gritty, gutsy guy, go through this, it was pretty amazing."
William Rotko on Patrick's
battle with cancer:
 "Yeah, I'll second that.
One more point is it's a collaborative experience
making a television show, from the P.A. up to
the studio network executive. And although you
forget sometimes that Patrick is going through
treatment for cancer, it brings you very close
together in a tight knit group. So there's a
tremendous amount of respect that's going on
and I think in this instance, dealing with this
issue, which is real, it brought us even tighter
together. And for me personally, on one little
note, it would make you stop and think before
you said, 'Oh, I have a tummy ache,' in the
morning, because he's toughing it out through
tougher conditions."
Romano on whether Patrick's
fight with cancer brought out the best in him
as an actor:
"It's very much what he intends, though this is far too literal. But when we talk about The Beast, the challenges in life that we all, as a nation, in the last few years realize are larger than any given moment's decision. We're trying to do a show in which you don't settle the evil of the world by catching the bad guy, because it's much more extensive than that. And we talk about something being more extensive and up against that challenge we know where Patrick goes as a man and as an actor. He's putting that on the screen and everybody who writes, produces, directs the show, they're aware that he is bringing the full 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. All of us who write and produce the show, we work in the shadow of a tremendous act of courage ... He does it five days a week, twelve hours a day. Directors like Mike [Dinner] will drive you crazy in the middle of the night in lousy weather. Patrick loves putting it up there and, yes, I think that's the source of it. You're sniffing it out, it's the truth."
Rotko on whether the
episodes are close ended or serialized:
 "There is a serialized
element that sort of is in the background of
the show. But every episode has a bad guy that
gets caught and put away, usually, sometimes
not. But there is an antagonist every episode
that they chase down."
Fimmel on what drives
the show:
"I think the show is very relationship driven, too. The relationship between Patrick and I, Ellis and Barker, goes throughout and every case furthers our relationship."
Travis on what he learned
from Patrick Swayze:
"I learned a lot from Patrick. He's a bit of a country boy like myself. And I've learned, mostly just as a man how fearless he is, how committed to the work he is, and it's classic to me to be working with a movie icon like that. It makes me laugh, you know? It was a great experience with him. He's the nicest guy you could meet and I think everybody felt that way."
William Rotko on why
Patrick Swayze joined The Beast:
"I think the part, he read the script and he had been given a lot of pilot scripts and it made us feel great. I think when he saw the part, he saw an opportunity to express a grayness in a character ... a character where it's not necessarily about right or wrong, it's a moment to moment decision. And he immediately responded to that over that coffee we had at the Regent Hotel and he came in and he knew the part already and he already knew who the character was. I think the writing in the pilot, for him, really sold him on it, and the relationship he would have with the younger actor he liked as well. But for Patrick, it grows about ten episodes in. He'll take Vin and I aside, or John aside and say, 'The character is not yours anymore. It's mine now.' And that's part of the beauty of television, I think."
Travis Fimmel on the
elaborate lengths the characters go to catch
the bad guy:
 "I think it's because
Patrick's character, Barker, is so intelligent.
He's a hard man to trick. And if he ever found
out that they're investigating him, I'd be in
a lot of danger. I think it really gives my
character an opportunity to investigate why
are they going through this much effort, because
they make me mistrust Barker. And if there's
that many people working against him, there
must be a good reason for it, you know? So it
creates some tension between the main relationship
and the show."
Travis Fimmel on whether
Patrick talks to him about the physical strain
the illness is putting him through:
"Like I say, you can hardly tell with the guy. He's such a man, you know? The sickest thing about him on set is probably his jokes. He's there every day and on the pilot you see him carrying me out, and I'm about 190 lbs or whatever, the man is 56. It's amazing. He does nearly all of his stunts, he's there every day, walks around his huge trailer, compared to mine. [laughs]"
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