March 18 (UPI) — Sam Neill, best known for his work in the Jurassic Park film franchise, posted on Instagram Saturday that he has been in remission the past eight months after a battle with cancer.
“My news seems to be all over the news at the moment, and it’s sort of ‘Cancer! Cancer! Cancer!’ Which is slightly tiresome because as you see, I am alive and well and I have been in remission for eight months, which feels really good,” the 75-year-old actor said in a video.
“I’m alive and kicking and I’m going to work. I’m very happy to be going back to work. We start filming in seven days time. I’m doing a thing called ‘Apples Never Fall’ with Annette Bening, and a really wonderful cast.”
He went on to say his recent health crisis became public knowledge because he had written about it in his forthcoming book, Did I Ever Tell You This?
“It does mention cancer because that’s the sort of context in which I wrote it. But I didn’t really mean to write a book, I needed something to do while I was undergoing treatment, and I am used to going to work and I suddenly couldn’t go to work,” he said.
“So that’s why I wrote the book, and I have to say there’s been great response to it. People seem to love it, which is great. I was very nervous, obviously as a first time author. Anyway, I think it’s fun. We sub-titled it ‘Movies, Life, Love and Other Catastrophes.’ So it gives you an idea of all the crazy things that have happened to me.”
The actor has even recorded an audio book version of the memoir.
“I hadn’t looked at the book for quite a while but I found it more entertaining than I expected. And I would look through the glass window at the audio engineer/producer and he seemed to be cracking up a lot so I take that as a good sign. So I hope you enjoy it, and let’s not worry too much about ‘all that’ because I’m fine. Okay!”
Neill underwent treatment for angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma after first experiencing swollen glands a year ago while promoting Jurassic World Dominion.