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The second act of Sam Neill: ‘The truth was, I didn’t know how long I had to live’

He is one of the world’s best actors – but can still go to Starbucks without anyone recognising him. He discusses cancer, remission, happiness, fame and video nasties

It’s a heightened murder mystery and subtle social commentary, and “the second series is considerably stronger than the first”, he says, rightly and also surprisingly, because it’s a little bit like saying the first season wasn’t very good. If you run the numbers, how many female antipodean directors made it big in the 20th century, and how many cast Neill as their leading man, you come back with “both of them” (Gillian Armstrong and, of course, Jane Campion with The Piano, in 1993). Photograph: Cinetext Bildarchiv/Universal/AllstarChoosing this show hints at a deep loyalty to the Australian and New Zealand film scene, which has been evident throughout Neill’s career; the reason he was cast in Jurassic Park was that Spielberg had seen him in Dead Calm in the late 80s.

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