Neill: Is Aussie honour ‘mistake’?

SAM Neill has more than 130 credits in film and television, including the Jurassic Park franchise, a handful of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, a best actor Logie for Jessica in 2005, and an AFI award as best actor for his role as Michael Chamberlain in Fred Schepisi’s Evil Angels in 1989.

And on December 4, he’ll have another one for the mantelpiece, as he is presented with AACTA’s Longford Lyell Award for outstanding contribution to the Australian screen industry, described by the academy as ‘‘Australia’s highest screen accolade’’.

‘‘It’s very nice of people to think of one at all, let alone to give you an award for hanging around long enough,’’ the 72-year-old actor, producer and winemaker says. ‘‘You might want to call them and see if they’ve made a mistake, though, given I’m a New Zealander.’’

Neill in fact started out as a director of documentaries, dabbling in his spare time in acting roles in short films being made by friends. In recent years, he’s returned to the documentary format, producing and presenting Why Anzac With Sam Neill in 2015 and the six-part series The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook last year. This last was a massive undertaking that kept him away from acting for a year, but he’s keen to do it again. ‘‘It was a real blast, an eye-opener and a great voyage of discovery for me,’’ he says of the series that retraced the journeys of Cook and examined the lasting impact thereof. ‘‘I’m completely fascinated by the Pacific, and there’s so much more to do there.’’

But he has no desire to be the person calling the shots again. ‘‘Directing is such hard work and I’m fundamentally a lazy person, so I’m happy for someone else to carry that burden.’’