Sir Sam Neill reveals blood cancer treatment will eventually stop working

New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill has been told the experimental treatment he is taking for blood cancer will eventually stop working.

The actor, known for his work on films Jurassic Park and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, shared he was being treated for stage-three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma – a blood cancer – in March.

In an interview with ABC’s Australian Story on Monday, Neill said that he had increased his dosage of a “grim and depressing” experimental cancer-drug, after the cancer stopped responding to chemotherapy.

Neill has been in remission for 12 months, but doctors have told the 76-year-old that while he will remain on treatment indefinitely, it would eventually stop working.

“I’m prepared for that,” he said. He was “not even remotely afraid” of death, he added.

“I’m not in any way frightened of dying… but I would be annoyed, because there are things I still want to do.”

Neill said he noticed the glands in his neck were swollen during a publicity trip to Los Angeles in 2022.

Back in Australia, he had an ultrasound of his neck.

“The nurse dropped her piece of equipment and runs out of the room.”

Dr Orly Lavee, a haematologist, said the tumour Neill was diagnosed with was rare and aggressive.

“I was in, really, a fight for my life and everything was a new world, a rather alarming world,” Neill said.

Several months of “brutal” chemotherapy left Neill looking not a “pretty sight”, he said, adding that he felt stripped of his dignity.

In photos, Neill appeared thin, frail and had lost his hair. His New Zealand-based son, Tim Neill, said he was shocked when he went to visit his dad.

“I could barely hug him, he was just bones and skin.”

After initial chemotherapy, some patients choose not to continue treatment if they find it “quite rigorous”, Dr Lavee said. However, Neill was “keen to push on and try something new” and responded “brilliantly” to new treatment which saw him enter remission.

“It’s not something I can finish. I will be on this for the rest of my life,” Neill said.

“Every two weeks I go and get beaten up again… but it’s keeping me alive, and being alive is infinitely preferable to the alternative.”

He added that the idea of retirement filled him with horror.

“To not be able to do the things that you love would be heartbreaking.”

He was realistic about the notion that the treatment would eventually stop working.

“I’m prepared for that, I’m ready for it. And I think I’ve done some good things.”

The news of his blood cancer diagnosis in March came ahead of the release his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?

“The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying,” he writes in chapter one of the book. “I may have to speed this up.”

Neill told the Guardian his book is not a cancer memoir, but rather his illness forms what he calls a “spiral thread” throughout the story.

“I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” he said.

“But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive.”

Neill received a knighthood in 2022 for his “outstanding contribution to film”.