Sam Neill, who is currently battling stage three blood cancer, was reduced to tears during a heartbreaking interview when asked a simple question about his parents.
The 76-year-old New Zealand actor broke down in tears on the debut episode of the ABC series The Meeting when asked what the “best lesson” he learned from his parents was.
Stunned by the ‘interesting’ question from one of the autistic interviewers in training, he struggled to hold back tears as he thought back to his mother Priscilla.
‘Wow, that’s a really interesting question. I think they… [chokes up] “I don’t know why that question hit me so hard, but it did,” the Jurassic Park star said.
‘My parents were from the generation that went through a lot. They have the [Great] Depression. My mother lost her father in the first [world] war.
“She grew up without her father. They went through a lot, but they were very stoic people.”
Sam then described a tough year at university, where he did “absolutely nothing” because he was too busy acting in plays and “trying to find a girlfriend.”
He said he became “very anxious” when final exams came around and he realized he hadn’t studied yet, and confided in his mother what he should do.
Sam Neill, 76, (pictured), who is currently battling stage three blood cancer, was in tears during a heartbreaking interview when asked a simple question about his parents
“I thought, ‘Oh, I think I’m having a breakdown. I have exams in a few weeks and I don’t know how to do it,’” he explained.
She looked at me and said, “Well, you’re just going to have to pull yourself together, right?”
“I think that was the best lesson I learned from her: sometimes you just have to pick yourself up. It’s a hard lesson, but it’s a good one.”
Sam was born in Northern Ireland to Priscilla Beatrice (née Ingham) and Dermot Neill, while his father, an army officer, was stationed in the country.
In the same episode of The Assembly, a series that sees a group of autistic journalists train under the guidance of Leigh Sales, Sam revealed his “tough” chemotherapy treatment after being diagnosed with stage three blood cancer.
“I’m on a different one now, so at least I don’t look like someone’s bald thumb,” he joked.
‘That’s what I looked like for a long time. It was embarrassing, I lost my beard and everything, but with it my dignity.’
The New Zealand actor burst into tears in the debut episode of ABC series The Assembly when asked what the “best lesson” he learned from his parents was. Pictured are Sam’s father Dermot (left) and mother Priscilla (right)
Sam announced last year that he would be diagnosed with cancer during his first trip back to New Zealand in 2022. Due to the lockdowns, it was virtually impossible to go home and see his family for two years.
His son Tim told Australian Story that his father had only been back in New Zealand for an hour when a doctor called with the terrible news that he had cancer.
“When he hung up the phone and we sat down and we cried a little bit together. It was supposed to be a happy day. He wasn’t allowed to stay,” Tim said.
Sam added: ‘I was really in a fight for my life. And it was all a new world and a rather alarming world.
‘I had three or four months of fairly conventional chemotherapies, which were quite tough.’
Tim went to visit his father who was undergoing chemotherapy and was shocked to see how weak he was.
“I think that was the best lesson I learned from her: sometimes you just have to pick yourself up. It’s a hard lesson, but it’s a good one,” he said.
“I was shocked, and I broke down and I could barely hug him. He was just, you know, bones and skin. And then he gave me a hard time because I was angry about it and said I was stressing him out, but I said, ‘What are you talking about, Dad?’”
Just when they thought Sam’s health was improving, he received even worse news: the cancer had returned and this time the situation was more serious.
Eventually, Sam was prescribed an experimental cancer drug, which thankfully began to work.
He has now been in remission for almost two years, but he admits he is “prepared” for the fact that it will eventually stop working.
“I know I have it, but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get it,” he said of the disease.
Sam is now on an infusion every two weeks and will have to do this for the rest of his life, or until the medication no longer works.
The sessions are gruelling, “very bleak and depressing,” he said.
Sam revealed last year that he found out he had cancer in 2022 during his first trip back to New Zealand after lockdowns made it virtually impossible to go home to see his family for two years. Pictured with his son Tim