Patrick Swayze Opens Up to Barbara Walters

"There's a lot of stuff going on. Yeah I'm scared. Yeah I'm angry. Yeah I'm [asking] why me. Yeah, I'm all this stuff," he tells Walters.

But despite those concerns swirling through his mind, Swayze says that, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer in early 2007, his reaction was: "Watch me! You watch what I pull off."

Despite spending 2007 fighting the often-lethal disease, Swayze signed on to act in a new TV show, TNT's "The Beast." After working 12 hour night shoots in cold weather during the week, Swayze spent his weekends getting chemotherapy for his illness, and he was unable to take narcotic pain medication: "When you're shooting, you can't do drugs," he explains to Walters. "I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or those kinds of things that take the edge off of it, 'cause it takes the edge off of your brain."

But Swayze maintains a positive attitude, telling Walters, "I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, not lived in the shadow of cancer, but in the light."

To see Walters' full interview with Swayze, tune in to ABC on Wednesday night at 10 p.m.

Published 1/6/09 by