By Georgia Hitch for the ABC
Neill opened up to students in a recent Australian TV interview. Photo: Sam Neill / Instagram
Legendary actor Sam Neill says he's "very grateful" to be receiving ongoing chemotherapy for blood cancer, but admitted the treatment is "brutal".
Neill made the comments in a wide-ranging Australian television interview, also touching on why he changed his mind about his knighthood and the role he turned down in a classic Aussie film.
Last year Neill revealed he was diagnosed with cancer in early 2022 and, although he's in remission, requires ongoing treatment.
While he made it clear then that his diagnosis was something "he's not really interested in", he shed some more light on the toll of his treatment during ABC iview's The Assembly.
The show sees autistic journalism students, mentored by Leigh Sales, interview high-profile identities, with no questions off-limits.
Neill was asked by one student, Evie, what motivates him to keep going through his chemotherapy.
"It's pretty brutal," he said.
"I'm on a different one now so at least I don't look … like somebody's bald thumb.
"That's what I looked like for quite a while, it was embarrassing.
"I lost my beard and everything. And my dignity went with it."
Neill shared that, hair or no hair, he was "very grateful" for the treatment.
"It's kept me alive, and living is much better than the other thing," he said.
He was also asked about becoming Sir Sam Neill after receiving a knighthood, something he admitted he was "slightly embarrassed" about.
"I said I didn't want the title for 10 or 12 years," Neill said.
The wide-ranging interview also touched on lighter topics, including many about his acting career. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"Then when I thought I was dying a couple of years ago I thought, 'Oh bugger it, I may as well go out with the title,' so I changed my mind."
Neill also reiterated that he finds retirement "far scarier" than dying, joking that "a lot of people are forced to play golf ... I cannot think of anything less appealing".
Neill brought to tears
Despite touching on his mortality and cancer diagnosis, it was a question from another student, Abbey, about the best lesson his parents taught him, that visibly moved the Jurassic Park star.
"My parents were of the generation that went through a lot of things; they went through the [Great] Depression, my mother lost her father in the First [World] War," he said.
"They went through a lot of stuff but they were very stoic people."
Neill described how in his first year at uni he'd "done bugger all" and spent most of his time focusing on his acting instead of his studies.
"It came to exam time and I realised I'd done almost no work," he recalled.
"It got me very anxious. I got home and my mum said, 'How are you darling?' I said, 'Oh mum, I think I'm having a breakdown'.
"She just looked at me and said, 'Well, you're just going to have to pull yourself together aren't you'.
"I think that was the best lesson I learned from her. Sometimes you just have to pull yourself together.
"It's a tough lesson but it's a good one."
Abbey said she was shocked that her question had affected the actor the way it did.
"He must have been thinking about his parents and how much they meant to him," she said.
"Maybe it was happy tears as he fondly remembered them."
Iconic role he turned down
The wide-ranging interview also touched on lighter topics, including many about his acting career.
Neill was asked by another student, Mitch, if there were any acting roles he'd wished he'd got but didn't.
While not exactly something he missed out on, he revealed he said no to an iconic Australian film.
"I turned down one role, it was one of the drag queens in Priscilla Queen of the Desert," Neill shared.
"I'd quite happily put on drag no problem at all, [it was that] I didn't get it.
"I didn't think it was funny. My reading faculties let me down, and I thought, 'This is never going to work'.
"I could not be more wrong. I thought the film was fantastic and I'm happy that I'm not in it."
This story was first published by the ABC.
