Last year, Neill insisted while he wasn’t afraid of death after battling the disease, he “would be annoyed” because he still has plenty he wants to achieve.
He started having a new experimental drug to fight off the disease, but despite the promising news, he knows it won’t last forever.
Neill told Australian Story at the time: “I’m not in any way frightened of dying. That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.
“I’d be annoyed because there are things I still want to do. Very irritating, dying. But I’m not afraid of it.”
After his diagnosis, Neill started chemotherapy, but it stopped working after three months and he switched his treatment to a rare anti-cancer drug that led to him going into remission.
Despite being cancer-free he was required to have infusions every two weeks. However, he’s aware the drug won’t continue working indefinitely.
Sam Neill undergoing treatment for his rare form of blood cancer. Photo / Instagram
“I’m prepared for that.”
Neill said of his cancer: “I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it. It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
The star took to Instagram after the interview was released, assuring people “it’s nothing to worry about” and that he’s planning to “be in remission for years to come”.
He said: “I made a passing remark that the treatment I’m on which has me in remission will inevitably fail one day. That’s what happens. It’s nothing to worry about.
“I’m in remission, I plan to be in remission for many years to come. I’ll bore you all to death with lots more work. At such time as it does fail, we’ll try something else. There’s all sorts of things that are happening with cancer these days. It’s a whole new ball game.
“Please stop worrying. I’m getting a lot of messages on social media and from friends — sorry to worry everybody. It’s all fine. It’s all good. I’m off to work. It’s a beautiful day.”
He went on to tell the publication what he’s focused on now is living in the moment, something that became much more important to the actor when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Reflecting on the downs after a round of vigorous cancer treatment, Neill says he would look forward to “ten days ... in which I could not feel more alive or pleased to be breathing and looking at a blue sky”.
He first revealed news of his cancer battle in his book Did I Ever Tell You This, onwhich he started work after his diagnosis.
Speaking to Sky News after the tome’s release, he said: “The cancer thing came out as a corollary to the release of the book, which is a memoir that I wrote when I was under chemo. I’m doing absolutely fine now. What was slightly annoying was that the story was sort of ‘cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer’, and really the other half of the story is ‘remission, remission and remission — and I’m absolutely fine.”
