Sam Neill’s breakthrough role was in the movieSleeping Dogsin 1977, the first New Zealand film to be released globally. The movie might have helped Neill gain international recognition, but it wasJurassic Parkthat pushed him into the mainstream scene. While he’s indebted to be part of the franchise, he admitted some grievances while working on the film.
When Neill landed the role in Steven Spielberg’s classic filmJurassic Park, he had hesitations. Since it was his biggest role at that point, he wasn’t convinced he deserved it. He confessed in his book, as reported byIndieWire,
“I was racked by the usual insecurities,” Neill wrote in his book. “Why me? I’m certainly not an action hero. The idea of me going hand to hand with Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply absurd. I’m more of the ordinary guy on screen. If indeed I was supposed to be that sort of action guy, I was already, I think, forty-five years old, and as always had left things about ten or fifteen years too late.”
When the film wrapped, and they were already promoting Jurassic Park, the actor further admitted that his insecurities worsened. Instead of feeling accomplished after he finished the film, he was more anxious since it became obvious that the film’s selling point was the dinosaurs and not the actors in it. He explained,
“The impostor syndrome would be enhanced later on when we were out and about promoting the movie,” he wrote. “The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that, with ‘Jurassic Park,’ they had set out to prove that they, with Spielberg, could make huge blockbusters without ‘movie stars’. This was true enough, but I think it slightly irked us, the actors, to be reminded from time to time we were not real ‘stars’.”
It also didn’t help that Harrison Ford turning down the film came to light. He added,
“It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura, Jeff and Dicky. As it turned out, we know now that Harrison Ford turned down the part, so the ‘no movie star’ plan may be not entirely true.”
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A Small Price to Pay For Stardom
Thankfully, it all worked out well. The film indeed made Same Neill a star, and all of his resentments resulted in a great payoff. While it did irk them initially, he was still thankful to be a part of the film. He said,
“I emphasize the word ‘slightly’, because more than anything we were all delighted to be working with Steven,” he wrote. “And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out.”
