Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill found it “unbearable” to be away from working during his treatment for blood cancer.
“I’ve been around for a long time and I love it and I love working with other actors and I like the atmosphere on set,” Neill told news.com.au. “And to be away from it for a year was unbearable for me.
“So, to be feeling very well and to be back doing what I do best. I have another life as a winemaker and all that stuff, but the core of what I do is acting, and making a fool of myself, and to be back making a big fool of myself, feels like a real privilege.”
Neill revealed last month he had been diagnosed with stage-three blood cancer but after a successful round of treatment, he was in remission.
In posting to social media, the prolific actor emphasised how glad he was to be back at work. And he’s not wasting any time. His latest film, The Portable Door, is the first of three movies he has slated for release in 2023. Plus, he’s already in production on another TV series.
The Portable Door is a high-concept fantasy film based on a book series by Tom Holt, and filmed in Australia with a local crew and mostly local cast. It features goblins and dragons, and a rich production design to bring to life the imaginative world of Holt’s J.W. Wells & Co series.
Neill is part of an ensemble cast that also includes Christoph Waltz, Miranda Otto, Rachel House, Sophie Wilde, Patrick Gibson and Chris Pang.
Even though Neill admitted fantasy is not really his jam, it only took about seven seconds of cajoling to convince him to sign on.
“I’m happy to dabble in it. And the great thing about this sort of fantasy adventure thing is to play characters that are way larger than life. And my character is larger than the room. It’s not often I get asked to play that.”
Neill also cited director Jeffrey Walker as to why he said yes to quickly. “I trust him implicitly and I knew this would be really fun. It was one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever done.”
The Portable Door follows a young man named Paul (Gibson) who finds himself bafflingly employed at a mysterious company called J.W. Wells & Co. He’s not sure quite what’s going on or how he got there but he knows his colleagues are strange. One of them has snakes coming out of her head, like Medusa.
Paul has next-level intuition, able to sense things that others can’t and it’s soon clear the reason the boss, Humphrey (Waltz), is so interested in him is because of his gift. Neill plays Humphrey’s right-hand man Dennis, who has his own secrets.
That particularly secret had Neill excited when he read that in the script, and it was the special effect he was most excited to see come to life. “I end up being slightly different from you how see initially, so I couldn’t wait to see that,” he teased.
The creature effects were done partly with the Jim Henson Company, a fact that delighted Gibson, who plays the hero and audience surrogate, Paul.
“I love those nostalgic movies like The Goonies and Labyrinth so that was fun for me, especially as Paul is discovering that the same time as the audience – or sometimes a little behind, he’s a bit slow on the uptake!”
Not slow on the uptake is Wilde’s character Sophie, who’s more clued in as the pair together navigate their way through their quest. Wilde professed to be a huge fantasy fan, and said Harry Potter is the reason she got into reading when she was a kid.
“I love stepping into another world, and all the amazing characters and costumes. And the sets are so big and epic. You walk onto one and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m in a fantasy film’.”
Otto is no stranger to a high-concept fantasy movie, having being part of one of the biggest fantasy franchises in Hollywood history, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. That trilogy, arguably, helped bring fantasy into the mainstream, and the embrace of the genre has only grown.
It’s a world that’s familiar to Otto but she emphasised that when there’s so many out-of-this-world elements going on, it’s important to anchor the characters in truth.
But there’s no denying the power of the art and costume departments in creating those vivid environments, which helps her on set.
“I love the costumes and the hair and make-up. That’s the thing that takes me away from myself and it’s no longer Miranda,” Otto said. “I love that transformative effect all of that has.”
Otto said it was a great opportunity for an Australian crew to work on such an ambitious and complex project in their own backyard.
“There’s so much talent here, so many great storytellers and amazing creatives. Having that level of production where you can invest in those kinds of sets and costumes and have that many extras and have all the cranes and the right equipment.
“We’ve made so much here over the years that’s been small and creative but it’s great to see people get to use the big toys and stuff in such a glossy, big production.”
But for all the fun of The Portable Door, Otto said there is a grounding in the film which is strikingly relevant to modern audiences.
“The film is fantasy and adventure and all those things but there is an undercurrent in there that is sort of talking about influence in this day and age and the contracts you sign and what you sign away and how you are being influenced.
“I think that’s a really clever undertone that is talking about how we allow ourselves to be influenced away from our true selves.”
The Portable Door is streaming now on Stan