The New Zealand actor Sir Nigel John Dermot Neill – Sam Neill for short – known from “Jurassic Park” and “Peaky Blinders” has fought with cancer in the past, as he makes public in his autobiography. But he was on the mend and again present on a film set, as he now shared in a video on Instagram.
The actor opens up about his illness in his book Did I Ever Tell You This (out March 23, 2023). In the memoirs, the 75-year-old writes that he has been fighting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (blood cancer) since March 2022 and could die from it.
In the last few days, however, this has led to media reports mainly focusing on his cancer – less the book itself. However, the actor does not like that, which is why he expressed his wish on Instagram that the cancer topic would not be so present over everything.
“Hi, I’m Sam Neill, I’m fine and back to work”
“Hi, I’m Sam Neill, kind of an actor, winemaker and also happens to be an author and my messages seem to be all over the media at the moment,” he wrote. “It’s a little tiring because as you can see I’m alive and well and I’ve been in remission for eight months which feels really good. I’m alive and well and going to work. I am very happy to be back to work.”
Neill continued: “So here I am, I just wish the headline [des Buches] wouldn’t be so much ‘the thing’ because the main thing is that I wrote this book.” And it mentions cancer because that’s the context in which he wrote it. “But I really didn’t want to write a book, I just needed to do something while I was in treatment.”
However, in a recent interview with the Guardian, the actor said that despite the success of the treatment, he would have to undergo lifelong chemotherapy and take medication.
Sam Neill in new series: “Apples Never Fall”
The actor says he’s been back filming a movie called “Apples Never Fall” alongside Annette Bening for the past week. Bening has landed the lead role in the upcoming Peacock series. This is based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty.