Sam Neill, 75, greeted fans with a video that revealed he’s doing “alive and kicking” despite recently revealing his non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in both a recent interview and in his new memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This? The actor, who also revealed he’s been undergoing chemotherapy once a month, took to Instagram on Mar. 18 to share the clip, along with a lengthy caption that gave an update. “Hi, I’m Sam Neill! Actor of sorts, vintner, and an author as it happens,” he wrote in the beginning of the caption.
After adding that his health “news seems to be all over the news at the moment, and it’s sort of, ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!,'” he admitted to being “slightly tiresome, because as you see, I am alive and well, and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good.”
Sam further wrote to fans about his healing journey and gave them an update on what he’s been up to in his career. In addition to mentioning his new Peacock series, Apples Never Fall, which also stars actress Annette Bening, he went into details about his memoir and why he wrote it. “I just wish the headline wasn’t ‘that thing’ so much, because the main thing is that I have written this book, it’s called Did I Ever Tell You This?, and it does mention cancer, because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it,” he wrote.
“But I didn’t really mean to write a book,” he added. “I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work, and I suddenly couldn’t go to work.” He went on to express gratitude for his success as an actor.
“I never thought that I would have a career as an actor, let alone an actor on screen,” he wrote. “But that’s kind of what happened and I am full of gratitude looking back on this life, and that’s what the book is about. I hope you enjoy it.” He concluded his post by assuring his fans to “not worry too much about ‘all that’ because I’m fine.”
Sam is best known for his role as Alan Grant in the hit Jurassic Park franchise. He also starred in the popular 1990s film, The Hunt for Red October, and has won numerous awards for his work over the years.