Acting legend Sam Neill has spoken about his difficult battle with a rare form of blood cancer as part of an episode of the docuseries “Australian Story” on ABC Australia.
The 76-year-old New Zealander, star of films such as “Jurassic Park” and “The Hunt for Red October,” was diagnosed last year with a non-Hodgkin blood cancer (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma).
His doctors tried chemotherapy, but it stopped working after three months. They switched to a drug that requires infusions every two weeks, which has successfully sent his cancer into remission but has had side effects.
Those doctors have warned him however that the drug will stop working at some point. He tells the outlet he’s “not remotely afraid” of death which he dubs “annoying”, but the idea of retiring from acting “fills me with horror”. He adds:
“I’m prepared for that [the drug stopping working]. I know I’ve got it [blood cancer], but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control… I started to look at my life and realized how immensely grateful I am for so much of it… I’m in a very uncertain world at the moment.”
Neill is focusing on what he loves including his vineyards, his garden and his grandchildren. He’s also continuing to act and was filming a movie adaptation of “Big Little Lies” author Liane Moriarty’s novel “Apples Never Fall” with Annette Bening before the strikes shut down production.
He’s also expected to return for the second season of the mini-series “The Twelve”. He adds that every morning he is “pleased to be awake”.
Source: THR
