Sam Neill’s final interview: ‘I’ve had to overcome the ordinariness of my appearance’
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- Sam Neill explains he changed his first name from Nigel at age 11 to avoid confusion with a childhood best friend, calling the switch "the best decision I've ever made" and joking that "Nigels are fools."
- Sam Neill recalls working with Robin Williams on Bicentennial Man, recounting that Williams "knew every crew member by name" and carried a "terrible sadness" that his humor partly masked in quieter moments on set.
- Sam Neill describes filming Jurassic Park's animatronic T. rex—operated by dozens of puppeteers whose teeth would sometimes fall out mid-take—and defends his spontaneous glasses-removal gesture that "Spielberg didn't ask for."
- Sam Neill shares he pulled up two underperforming acres of pinot noir at his Fusilier vineyard to plant chardonnay, saying he wants to "live long enough to pour my first chardonnay" from his own grapes.
- Sam Neill discusses undergoing five years of chemotherapy, saying his nurse advised him to "eat whatever you feel like"—a philosophy that now sees him eating stewed plums, apricots, and rhubarb grown on his farm each morning.
- Sam Neill reveals he was "bullied" into doing the Bond screen test by his late agent Margaret but ultimately turned it down, reasoning that being known as "an ex-Bond" would have defined him in ways he didn't want.
- Sam Neill runs a farm stocked with celebrity-named livestock: a cow called Helena Bonham Carter (now on her 16th calf), a kunekune piglet named Amy Adams, and a rooster called Michael Fassbender that he refers to as "my big cock."
Why it matters: Sam Neill uses the interview to do something rare: reflect unguarded on his life rather than plug a project. From joking about his birth name to crediting his nurse with reshaping his diet after five years of chemo, the actor is shaping his own legacy on his own terms. Variety's photo retrospective and The Guardian's 20-best-roles rundown focus on his filmography, but Neill's own account goes well beyond the résumé.
