At the beginning of the book, he thanks his doctor and friends at the Hospital de San Vicente. “I wouldn’t have started the book without you. And I certainly would never have finished it. To all my friends who brought me a candle on those very dark days.”
He doesn’t have any theory about the cause of cancer, but he does reference a time when he worked on a farm. “We heavily sprayed a chemical called Tordon on gorse (a weed) and a good part of the province in the process. We didn’t think much of it at the time, and we were assured that he was safe. he wasn’t. It turned out that he was indeed Agent Orange, a chemical horror that the Americans were hellishly visiting the hapless Vietnamese at exactly that moment. We would do it ourselves when the wind was against us. ”
Sam Neill with an early vintage.
It sure is “working”. On Monday, Liane Moriaty arrives for a full reading of her recent bestseller. Neill tells the Herald: “It is for his latest book called apples never fall and I’m acting alongside Annette Bening, which is a great pleasure.
“It looks like we’ll do a second set of The twelve what we will do later in the year and I look forward to that, although nothing is guaranteed.
Of Jurassic Park he says: “I wouldn’t be surprised if they did more, but I suspect they’ve kicked us out on the grass. It’s been a great race.”
So do you feel like you need to be busier or put your feet up? “All of the above, I’ve always been productive and I love going to work and I love being with other actors. At the same time, my happy place is going back to the farm with my animals and producing great wine, so I’m always a little on the fence about where I want to be because they’re both good places.
Neill’s cow, named after actress Helena Bonham Carter, describes her as the most accomplished intelligent actress imaginable and a dear friend.
“In two to three weeks we will start this year’s harvest, and we are extremely lucky where we are compared to the poor people in the North Island who have experienced the cyclone and are in serious trouble.”
He writes: “I have no fear of death, none at all. That is not courage; that’s just realism. I don’t particularly want to die alone, that’s all. I am a single man and there is no one here to hold my hand, no partner to accompany me.
He finally says, “When you’re in remission, that’s a really good place to be. Every day you’re alive is a good day, and now I’m having the best days of my life.”
A cultural guide to go out and love your city. Subscribe to our Cultura Fix newsletter here.