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Whether he’s reprising his role as Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park film franchise or playing the fierce Major Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of the hit series Peaky Blinders, actor Sam Neill is an incredible talent with a stellar film and TV resume.
The Northern Ireland-born, New Zealand-based actor is also someone who can show up at a packed concert at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre over B.C. Day long weekend and largely go unnoticed.
In town filming the new Netflix series Untamed, Neill took in the Canadian tour launch of An Unfunny Evening With Tim Minchin and His Piano on Saturday night, having a hearty laugh at the Australian composer’s witty repartee and inventive songwriting.
Neill’s recently published memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, revealed that he was dealing with stage-three blood cancer. That is now in remission and Neill is going through what Guardian writer Zoe Williams describes as the Second Art of Sam Neill.
Besides Untamed, Neill is also appearing in the second season of the Australian courtroom drama, The Twelve.
So what did the global icon and this writer discuss as we were seated next to one another at the show?
The topic of our brief chat was the ridiculous placement of the drink holders at the theatre. Located below the level of the aisle walkways, the holders are so far below where you sit that even the six-foot Neill couldn’t reach them without having to stretch down and risk banging heads with the person sitting in front of him. We shared a laugh at the idea of what the instructions given to the installer: “Put them where they don’t impede people moving in and out of the seat rows.”
Needless to say, they don’t. And I really didn’t recognize Neill at all.
After the show, Neill joined the singer backstage and Minchin posted about it on X. Minchin and Neill have an ongoing series of posts on the platform joking about Minchin’s character, Lucky, in the series Upright making anti-Pinot Noir jokes and Neill being a producer of world-class versions of the wine under his Two Paddocks vintage.
In Untamed, Neill stars opposite Aussie Eric Bana as a veteran park ranger in this mystery drama set in the wilds of Yosemite National Park. A release date for the Vancouver-shot series has not yet been announced.
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