"I’m alive and kicking": Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill on cancer diagnosis and new memoir (VIDEO)
It was during the 2022 publicity tour for Jurassic World Dominion when New Zealand actor Sam Neill, 75, realized that something wasn’t right.
In an interview with the BBC, he shared that he noticed lumpy glands in his neck. Soon, doctors told him that he had stage three non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that forms in the lymph system.
He recalls thinking, “I’m crook, I’m dying.”
Undergoing treatment and unable to work, he started writing a memoir called Did I Ever Tell You?.
“It does mention cancer because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it,” he said in a video posted on his Instagram account. “But I didn’t really mean to write a book, I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work and I suddenly couldn’t go to work.”
Watch the video below:
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Neill told the BBC that he could sense the urgency from his publishers to finish the book in a hurry “just in case I kicked the bucket before it was time to release the thing.”
He added that the tone of his memoir is one of surprise.
“I never thought that I would have a career as an actor, let alone an actor on screen,” he said.
Neill added that seeing the news reports focusing on his diagnosis “is slightly tiresome.”
“As you see, I am alive and well and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good,” he said. “And I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work.”
He added that he’s about to start filming a mini series titled Apples Never Fall with co-star Annette Bening.
Did I Ever Tell You This?: A Memoir is scheduled to be released on March 21.
“I hope you enjoy it, and let’s not worry too much about ‘all that’ because I’m fine,” he said.
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