Sam Neill - Battling more dinosaurs

By MIKE HOULAHAN

Sam Neill, one of New Zealand's most successful actors, has an unusual fear. The star of movies as diverse as Jurassic Park, The Piano and the recently released My Mother Frank, admits he doesn't like to be "caught acting."

"I have been caught acting in the past and it's hard to watch. I was flicking through the channels the other day and saw a film I'd appeared in which I hadn't seen or thought of for 20 years.

"It was interesting. This is one of the few jobs where you can see how you were 20 years ago. There were moments which were acceptable and one or two which were quite good but there were other entire scenes where I was mortified because I couldn't believe how bad I'd been."

Neill is in Los Angeles filming the third instalment of dinosaur thriller Jurassic Park but in My Mother Frank, by Australian first-time feature film director Mark Lamprell, he plays an academic dinosaur.

The film is the story of a widow (Sinead Cusack) who disrupts her settled world by deciding to attend university. There she runs headfirst into crusty academic Professor Mortlock (Neill), who has little time for "academic tourists."

"It was quite interesting to play a character who is ostensibly maligned at first, because I've been playing a few good guys lately and I like to vary the roles," Neill says.

"I liked the story. There was something quirky about it that was appealing to me. I'm glad I did it."

One of the things Neill has learned in 30-something years of appearing on stage and screen is that the best acting has nothing to do with being flashy.

This approach has enabled his skills to be recognised the world over. The one-time film editor, director and scriptwriter at the National Film Unit broke into feature films in the landmark New Zealand movie Sleeping Dogs, then made films in Australia before moving to Britain, where he came under the protective arm of screen legend James Mason.

Before long he was becoming well-known internationally, especially for his performance in the award-winning television series Reilly: Ace of Spies.

"James Mason took an interest in my career before he died. He was a good friend," Neill says. "I liked the way Mason would draw you into his performance, and I liked the way he could be light and dark in equal measures."

Neill is at home making features and documentaries in New Zealand, Australia, Europe or Hollywood. He is equally able to act in a big-budget Hollywood film as in arthouse films such as The Piano.

Although Neill isn't an American action hero, he didn't feel out of place in Jurassic Park, one of the biggest action movies of all time.

Neill is an everyman kind of actor. When he is in a scene, he invariably appears not to be acting but an ordinary person caught up in the action. It's a quality best shown in Death In Brunswick, where he is brilliant as a bumbling cook.

It is possible to argue that Neill's understated approach has counted against him in some ways. Critics, including American Leonard Maltin, have noted that Neill's best performances can sometimes be taken for granted.

For all that, Maltin has no doubt of Neill's status among the best and most versatile actors working today.

"I've tried not to be typecast. That's been deliberate really," Neill says. "I'd be bored if I was just doing one type of film, and also I'd be pretty antsy if I was just working in one particular country.

"It's good to get back to New Zealand and Australia every once in a while to make a film because I feel more at home in that part of the world.

"It's great working in Hollywood every once in a while though. Everyone knows who I am and I can get a decent table in a restaurant," he laughs.

Neill, now 53, has no intention of retiring soon, but at the same time his interests are much wider than just acting.

"I'm very involved in my little wine concern [the Two Paddocks vineyard in Central Otago]. At the same time as this, I seem to have taken an unexpected diversion into local body politics, rather against my will," he says, referring to an ongoing spat between himself and Queenstown mayor Warren Cooper about the future development in the South Island town he calls home.

He is presently dividing his time between that struggle and the slog that is making a big action movie. Jurassic Park 3, directed by Joe Johnston, has taken up much of this year and will keep Neill busy for some time.

The irony about action films, because they involve stunts and special effects, is that they can be slow. "This is going to take between five and six months to finish. It can be excruciating," Neill says.

Although he can't give away too much of the plot, Neill's character Dr Alan Grant has returned to Jurassic Park against his will. After a plane crash Dr Grant and "a bunch of people I don't necessarily want to be with" are dumped back in dinosaur country.

"Our lives are in danger from the moment the plane crashes, until when some of us survive. Of course, some of those people will be eaten, that's pretty much a given," Neill says.

"We've got dinosaurs you haven't seen before, and it's action pretty much from the beginning. There's a lot of running around the place in terror. I'm pretty fit at the moment."

- NZPA