Sam Neill shared that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of stage three blood cancer, revealing the news ahead of its release. Did I ever tell you this?his memoirs.
Talking to GuardNeill said for the first time he had swollen lymph nodes while advertising for Jurassic period World: Domination in March 2022. Soon after, he was diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The 75-year-old actor then underwent chemotherapy, but when it started to fail, he started taking a new chemotherapy drug that he will continue to take monthly for the rest of his life. He is currently cancer free.
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“I can’t pretend that the past year hasn’t been full of dark moments,” he said. “But those dark moments have clearly enlightened me, you know, and have made me grateful every day and immensely grateful to all my friends. I’m so glad to be alive.”
Neill says he never intended to write a book, but began to write down the small details of his life – his 53-year career in film and television, becoming a celebrity. fame, his contrasting simple life on the farm in New Zealand and his death – after he found himself with “nothing to do” following his diagnosis.
“As I continued and continued to write, I realized that it really gave me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about that tomorrow… that’s it. will entertain me.’ And that’s really been a lifesaver, because I can’t go through that with nothing to do, you know,” he said.
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Although the book is not about his cancer, it forms a “spiral” in the memoir. In fact, the book opens with a refreshingly humorous, signature line for the actor.
“The thing is, I’m a scammer. Probably dying,” he writes in chapter one, “I might have to speed things up.”
Neill began his acting career in the 1970s, which spanned more than five decades – with projects like Journalist, My Brilliant Career, The Piano, Peaky Blinders, Thor: Ragnarok and more.
His next project will be a TV series adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel Apples never fallFilming in Australia.
Did I ever tell you this? will be released on Tuesday, March 21.
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