Sam Neill

I can tell you where I was when Kennedy was shot - which was in the common room at school. I heard about it on the old valve radio. At the time of Armstrong's landing, I was at university rehearsing a play.

I was christened 'Nigel.' It set me back for years.

I have taken a bit, when I find the time, to the odd television binge. Because television has improved so much, it's worth binging.

'Dexter' I'm very fond of. I got addicted to that.

No intelligent man wears a moustache voluntarily - you can write that down.

I always want to be as good in the part as I possibly can. But I make no pretensions of being the greatest actor in the world.

As much as possible, I try to encourage people to use stunt men because that is really their job.

I enjoy some physical stuff. But if I had a choice between playing a scene where it's raining, it's terribly cold, I'm wet and I'm being drowned and playing a scene with dinosaur eggs in a laboratory, I'd probably take the latter. It's warmer and generally more comfortable!

If you're making films in New Zealand, you can't avoid the landscape. It's certainly more handsome than I am.

I'm not big on Champagne, but I'd take along a bottle of Cristal to pop for when the boat comes to the rescue.

I've worked all my life to shed myself of any character.

When I started in films, it never really occurred to me that I could make a career out of acting.

I can never really remember what I look like. I'm just sort of neutral. I don't think I'm sort of, you know, hideous.

I think you need brains to do any Shakespeare with any authority. I could do Shakespeare, but not with any authority.

I hate to say it, but there seems to have been some sort of dumbing down as far as movies go.

If you want to learn about America, watch 'The Wire.' It's a profound piece of entertainment.

I understand acting and I understand actors. I don't really understand the world of celebrity. That's just bizarre. Those sorts of elements I'm at sea with.

Try and fit in in a New Zealand playground with an Armagh accent - it doesn't work.

When I left university I was working for a documentary film company for six or seven years to the great relief of my father whose greatest waking fear was that I would become an actor.