Sam Neill gave fans a health update on social media after he recently said in an interview that he had been diagnosed with cancer last year.
“My news seems to be all over the news at the moment, and it’s sort of ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!’” he said in the video posted March 18, adding, “Which is slightly tiresome because as you see, I am alive and well and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good.”
In an interview with the BBC published March 17, Neill shared that he had been diagnosed with stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma while promoting “Jurassic World Dominion” this time last year. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in the lymph system, part of the immune system.
In his video, Neill shared that at the moment he is “alive and kicking” and getting ready to go back to work on a project with Annette Bening called “Apples Never Fall.”
“I just wish the headline wasn’t ‘that thing’ so much because the main thing is that I have written this book, it’s called ‘Did I Ever Tell You This?’ and it does mention cancer because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it,” he explained in the video.
Neill said he didn’t set out to write a book, explaining that he “needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment” and was accustomed to going to work, which was off the table at that time.
Neill told the BBC that while on tour promoting the most recent film in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, he had noticed lumpy glands in his neck.
After the diagnosis he thought, “I’m crook, I’m dying,” he told the outlet. His reaction to the diagnosis was “pretty phlegmatic,” he said, but ultimately made him “take stock of things.”
Now eight months in remission, Neill’s book looks back on his life — from his illness to his illustrious career.
Neill said in his video that the response to the memoir has been great and that “people seem to love it,” despite the actor being “very nervous” as a first-time author.
The book earned its subtitle “Movies, Life, Love and Other Catastrophes” to give “an idea of all the crazy things that have happened to me.”
“The tone of the book is one of surprise,” he said. “I never thought that I would have a career as an actor, let alone an actor on screen, but that’s kind of what happened and I am full of gratitude looking back on this life, and that’s what the book is about.”
Neill said that while reading the audiobook at the studio recently, he “found it more entertaining” than he expected, adding, “So I hope you enjoy it and let’s not worry too much about ‘all that’ because I’m fine, okay!”
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