A Jurassic Park star broke down in tears over a simple question in an interview. Sam Neill was left in tears after he was asked about his parents during an interview on the debut episode of ABC series The Assembly. The 76-year-old was quizzed on what the best lesson he learned from his mum and dad was when he broke down in front of the interviewer.
Initially, he seemed taken aback by the question, which was asked by one of the autistic interviewers in training as he paused and visibly was choked in the moment. The actor got upset as he began to reminisce about his mum Priscilla. Answering the question, he said: "My parents were of the generation that went through a lot of things.
They went through the [Great] Depression. My mother lost her father in the first [ world ] war. She grew up without her father.
They went through a lot of stuff, but they were very stoic people." Sam then went on to talk about a particularly difficult year he had while in university due to doing "bugger all" and trying to find a girlfriend. He said this led to him being "very anxious" so he confided in his mum for support.
He added: "'I said, 'Oh, I think I'm having a breakdown and I've got exams in a couple weeks and I don't know how I'm going to go'. She just looked at me and she said, 'Well, you're just going to have to pull yourself together aren't ya?' I think that was the best lesson I learned from her is sometimes you just have to pull yourself together. It's a tough lesson, but it's a good one.
" Sam was born in Northern Ireland to his parents Priscilla Beatrice and Dermot Neill. In the same episode of The Assembly, a series which sees a group of autistic journalists train, Sam talked about his cancer treatment after being diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer. He went on to say that he is on a different type of treatment now as he joked: "So at least I don't look like somebody's bald thumb.
That's what I looked like for quite a while - it was embarrassing, and I lost my beard and everything, and my dignity went with it." Sam revealed last year that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 when he went back to New Zealand after Covid lockdowns meant he couldn't go back to see his family for two years. His son Tim said his dad had been back in New Zealand for barely an hour when a doctor phoned with the news he had the disease.
Sam was put on an experimental cancer drug which started to work. The actor now has infusions every two weeks and will do so for the rest of his life or until the drug stops working. Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
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