Sam Neill Quotes & Sayings

I never met Barry Crump, but I was in an audience once for a play once. There was a drunken man at the back of the auditorium that was shouting during a performance of a one man play, and it turned out later on that was Barry Crump and he was in a state of inebriation. — Sam Neill

I enjoy some physical stuff. But if I had a choice between playing a scene where it's raining, it's terribly cold, I'm wet and I'm being drowned and playing a scene with dinosaur eggs in a laboratory, I'd probably take the latter. It's warmer and generally more comfortable! — Sam Neill

The core of the film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] is that relationship. Whether they're getting on or whether they're not. If that relationship works, then everything else works as well. And you kind of almost, sort of, gives into a realm of something like New Zealand magic realism ... There is no world in which social work is actually pursues some kid into the woods in this manner. — Sam Neill

In the case of Wilderpeople, I walked on the first day with some apprehension actually; because it doesn't come anywhere close to anything I've really played before, this part. — Sam Neill

I've worked all my life to shed myself of any character. — Sam Neill

When I left university I was working for a documentary film company for six or seven years to the great relief of my father whose greatest waking fear was that I would become an actor. — Sam Neill

I think you need brains to do any Shakespeare with any authority. I could do Shakespeare, but not with any authority. — Sam Neill

This was only Taika Watiti fourth film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople], but I think he brings a very original way of looking at stuff and I think if you look at Boy, for instance, which is a beautiful film, that was his second feature, and it's heartbreakingly sad, but it's also simultaneously very funny. There are not many people who can do that. — Sam Neill

I understand acting and I understand actors. I don't really understand the world of celebrity. That's just bizarre. Those sorts of elements I'm at sea with. — Sam Neill

Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see. — Sam Neill

I'm not big on Champagne, but I'd take along a bottle of Cristal to pop for when the boat comes to the rescue. — Sam Neill

I can never really remember what I look like. I'm just sort of neutral. I don't think I'm sort of, you know, hideous. — Sam Neill

Because I was familiar with Taika's Watiti work and there's a very subversive, funny streak amongst all of them. I don't think he turned [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] into a sort of drama, there's too much dark material underneath it for it to be a comedy; it wasn't designed to be a comedy. I think it's a comedy ... I think it's a drama that's funny; which is different. — Sam Neill

As much as possible, I try to encourage people to use stunt men because that is really their job. — Sam Neill

Magic realism - somebody used that phrase the other day that is familiar with South American literature. That rang a bell. It resonates with me. — Sam Neill

Big budgets don't necessarily give you big films. — Sam Neill

When I started in films, it never really occurred to me that I could make a career out of acting. — Sam Neill

No intelligent man wears a moustache voluntarily - you can write that down. — Sam Neill

Every actor wants more offers, but I get enough and I do like to be busy. — Sam Neill

Failure is never quite so frightening as regret. — Sam Neill

I get very antsy and nervous if I don't know what the next job is. — Sam Neill

I hate to say it, but there seems to have been some sort of dumbing down as far as movies go. — Sam Neill

'Dexter' I'm very fond of. I got addicted to that. — Sam Neill

[Hunt for the Wilderpeople] people seem to be just finding it hilarious in Sundance. I would think that judging on the feedback I get; it's a very warming film. It's not sentimental, but people are sort of heart warmed by a message that's pretty rare. — Sam Neill

You don't necessarily have to go a long way in New Zealand to be in some pretty dense and scary bush. — Sam Neill

Wines are like women in that it's often the imperfections that fascinate. — Sam Neill

I go by the role pretty much. And I think the only genre I haven't gotten to do but I'd love to is a western, but no one has ever asked me to do that. Unfortunately they are very few and far between these days, but that is one type of film I'd love to do. — Sam Neill

If you want to learn about America, watch 'The Wire.' It's a profound piece of entertainment. — Sam Neill

People turn into fools when they see a movie star and do weird things. — Sam Neill

Try and fit in in a New Zealand playground with an Armagh accent - it doesn't work. — Sam Neill

I think it took us all by surprise. I mean, I knew that people in New Zealand would like [Hunt for the Wilderpeople], but no one really anticipated how much they would embrace it as it is. And it's playing widely in Australia now; they're running it as well. It's going to be interesting to see how it does it in the States, but I think if Sundance was any indication, I imagine it could do well. — Sam Neill

Mars looks like Vegas without the casinos. — Sam Neill

I can tell you where I was when Kennedy was shot - which was in the common room at school. I heard about it on the old valve radio. At the time of Armstrong's landing, I was at university rehearsing a play. — Sam Neill