Kiwi acting icon Sam Neill (The Piano, Jurassic Park) talks to NZ On Screen. Neill recalls the time in his twenties when he apprenticed as a director at the National Film Unit “about a hundred thousand years ago” after being inspired to join by his university mate John Laing.

He reflects on the unofficial film school it provided:

• There was an attitude of making “one for them - the post office, railways or banana company - and one for yourself”.
• The challenge of getting through personal projects under the auspices of tourism - the NFU was mandated with making promotional films for the tourism dept. Neill, a skiing fan, remembers the challenges they faced shooting retro classic ‘ski ballet’ Flare atop The Southern Alps and Ruapehu.
• On how he’d do things differently with hindsight (“I’d cut them quicker!”)
• “There were one or two I quite liked”; he fondly remembers a doco on innovative NZ architect Ian Athfield: “‘Ath’ was fizzing with ideas … he was one of those outstanding New Zealand individuals.”
• On ditching pretensions to direct as his acting career took off. Neill muses that he hasn’t quite decided (between acting or directing) but remarks that “the acting seems to have taken precedence over the last thirty years or so …”

Neill offers a precis of his career, from debuting as a priest in Barry Barclay’s Ashes, which was seen by Ian Mune and Roger Donaldson, which led to him being cast as the lead in breakout feature Sleeping Dogs, which in turn saw him cast in Aussie director Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career and … the rest has been “a weird game of dominos …” through to his latest film: starring alongside screen legend Peter O’Toole and Bryan Brown in Toa Fraser-directed Dean Spanley.

Interview by Clare O'Leary for NZ On Screen. NZ On Screen is the home of New Zealand screen content.