Emotional Interview with Actor Sam Neill (76)
- Question During Interview Leaves Him Emotional
"Wow, that's quite a deep question," Neill responded, as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I'm not sure why this question has hit me so hard, but it has."
At 76, Neill revealed that his parents were part of a generation that went through numerous hardships. They experienced the Great Depression and his mother lost her father in World War I. Despite these challenges, they were resilient individuals.
A Tough but Valuable Lesson
Neill shared a story from his student days when he neglected his studies due to his involvement in theater and romantic pursuits. As exams approached, he found himself in a panic and confided in his mother.
"I told her, 'I think I'm having a breakdown and I have exams coming up in a few weeks and I don't know what to do'," Neill reminisced. "And she just looked at me and said, 'Well, you'll just have to pull yourself together, won't you?'"
Neill considered this as the best lesson he learned from his mother. "Sometimes, you just have to pull yourself together," he said. "It's a tough lesson, but it's a valuable one."
Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland to a military family, Neill's father, Dermot, was a New Zealand army officer of the second generation, and his mother, Priscilla, was English. The family returned to New Zealand in 1954.
Sam Neill Opens Up About His Cancer Battle
Neill also discussed his blood cancer diagnosis and the challenging chemotherapy treatments he underwent. He first shared his diagnosis in his memoir in March 2023. To cope with the side effects, Neill switched treatments with a light-hearted joke, "I didn't want to look like a bald thumb, so I changed treatments," he said. "For a while, I looked like that - it was quite embarrassing. I lost my beard and my dignity went with it."
Neill revealed that his cancer is currently in remission, but he will require monthly chemotherapy for the foreseeable future.
In his youth, Sam Neill and his family returned to their homeland, settling in New Zealand after spending time in Northern Ireland and serving with the New Zealand army.
During his struggle with blood cancer, Sam Neill found humor in his treatment choices, opting to switch chemotherapy regimens to avoid looking like a "bald thumb," a quirky attempt to maintain some semblance of normalcy amidst his health challenges.
