SAM NEILL

Hi, Sam. Are you in New Zealand right now?

Yes! As I speak to you I’m finishing my quarantine. I’m on day 13. I’m all clear to get out of here.

Are you back on your farm, then?

I’ll be back on the vineyard next week. I’ll be slightly delayed because I’m going to the Governor General — they’re making me a New Zealand ‘Arts Icon’. Which is unusual. I think it’s only 20 living ones at any one time. I believe when you die, you have to give the medal back, which is a bit unfair, having died, y’know, that you have the additional burden of having to find someone to give the medal to. I plan not to die for a very long time — just to begrudge someone else the honour of a medal.

Well, we sincerely hope so too.

Can I just say, at a time when publications have been under such pressure for all this year, it’s great that Empire is hanging in there. I was in London during the lockdown and I was very pleased to see that newsagents were deemed essential and open so I could go in and buy Empire magazine or The Guardian or whatever. So, good on you for sticking in there.