Did I Ever Tell You This? A Memoir
Sam Neill
Did I Ever Tell You This? A Memoir
Sam Neill
Fully revised and updated with new writing.
In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world's most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion.
By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. Born in 1947 in Northern Ireland, he emigrated to New Zealand at the age of seven. His family settled in Dunedin on the South Island, but young Sam was sent away to boarding school in Christchurch, where he was hopeless at sports and discovered he enjoyed acting.
But how did you become an actor in New Zealand in the 1960 and 1970s where there was no film industry? After university he made documentary films while also appearing in occasional amateur productions of Shakespeare. In 1977 he took the lead in Sleeping Dogs, the first feature made in New Zealand in more than a decade, a project that led to a major role in Gillian Armstrong's celebrated My Brilliant Career.
And after that Sam Neill found his way, sometimes by accident, into his own brilliant career. He has worked around the world, an actor who has moved effortlessly from blockbuster to art house to TV, from Dr Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park movies to The Piano and Peaky Blinders.
Did I Ever Tell You This? is a joy to read, a marvellous and often very funny book, the work of a natural storyteller who is a superb observer of other people, and who writes with love and warmth about his family. It is also his account of his life outside film, especially in Central Otago where he established Two Paddocks, his vineyard famous for its pinot noir.
Review
Chris Gordon
I feel like I have known Sam Neil my whole life. I cannot remember a time when he wasn’t on my screen. And it is always a joy to see him. His memoir (of sorts) is exactly what I expected of (our) Sam; an amicable man with self-effacing humour telling stories from his life. It was a pleasure to read. In fact, there were times when I laughed out loud. However, shockingly, very early on in this memoir, he writes about his relatively recent diagnosis of a type of blood cancer. He does so without much fuss, although he does lament on hair loss.
He begins his memoir in Ireland, where he was born, and finishes in his vineyard in New Zealand. Along the way, he introduces you to his friends and family. He seems very loyal and has amassed a wonderful circle of friends, some famous, others not so. He talks about the work he has completed – he has been in nearly 100 films. I did note that he seems to enjoy a story of his bowel movements frequently. (Is he at pains to lets us know that everyone shits, even the very famous?)
Even though he shares some intimate moments, this is a not a kiss and tell memoir. (There is no mention, for example, of Laura Tingle.) This is a respectful telling of the stories that made him who he is. I finished this memoir feeling like I had been at a raucous dinner party, seated next to him of course, where tales are flung from one end of the earth to the other and the evening finishes with a lovely Two Paddocks pinot noir. And a relief that he is in remission. Read this memoir because it turns out that Sam Neill is an excellent dinner party guest. But I reckon I already knew that.
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