'Twilight' Star Cam Gigandet: 'I Love Pain'

WENN

Though he's unlikely to experience anything other than box-office bliss when the vampire saga Twilight hits the big screen on November 21, actor Cam Gigandet admits that he's a bigger fan of unpleasant sensations in the latest issue of Men's Health.

"I love pain," says Gigandet, who plays villain vampire James in the flick. "Love pain."

To illustrate his point, the 26-year-old—whose previous acting gigs include stints on The O.C. and Jack & Bobby—tells the magazine about a water-skiing mishap during a family vacation in Washington state last year.

Gigandet slammed into a buoy and, despite sustaining a cracked tibia, he "continued skiing just so my parents wouldn't freak out." It wasn't until he drove 18 hours back to Los Angeles and visited a doctor that he discovered the extent of his injury.

The athletically inclined Gigandet (he enjoys a variety of sports and practices the martial art krav maga) isn't just a fan of physical pain. He tells the magazine that losing his short-lived job on The Young and the Restless—he played Daniel Romalotti for seven episodes in 2004—was a driving force in his career.

"To be let go from a soap opera is the most embarrassing confidence basher in the world. It's like, 'Oh, if I'm not good enough for that, I'm not good enough for anything.' So that was tough," he says. "But you keep pushing forward."

So being canned from a series can be a positive experience? That should come as wonderful news to some struggling show-bizzers.