Hear of the dog

Sam Neill, as Dean Spanley, and Jeremy Northam. Photo from image.net.

But his favourite role is in gumboots on a Central Otago vineyard. Nigel Benson talks to Sam Neill.

"No problems with having a name like 'Nigel' in Dunedin, then?" actor Sam Neill enquires with a chuckle. He can laugh.

The veteran actor was born Nigel Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland, but got the nickname "Sam" while boarding at Christs College because there were three other Nigels at the school.

"I encouraged the nickname, because I thought I'd be slightly less likely to be victimised," he teases.

"I clung on to `Sam' with great enthusiasm. Nigel was a little effete for the rigours of a New Zealand playground."

I cough, but plough gamely on.

At 62, there's still a touch of the naughty schoolboy about Neill, who has a delightfully laconic and wickedly New Zealand sense of humour.

During the filming of Jurassic Park on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the actor staged a mock fight among the crew to shock a group of Japanese tourists.

"I'm very little trouble on the set, as long as I have my own chair," Neill drily observes.

The Neill family moved to Dunedin when he was 6 years old.

His father, Dermot Neill, was a New Zealand army officer stationed in Northern Ireland, but returned to New Zealand to work in the family business, Neill Ltd, which became liquor giant Wilson Neill.

Alcohol also plays a role in his latest film, Dean Spanley, which is set in Edwardian England in 1904 and tells the story of a dean with a fondness for a Hungarian dessert wine called Tokay.

Once primed, the dean reminisces about his past life as a, er, dog.

"It's a sort of dessert wine, one I know nothing about, but I'm prepared to believe it's transcendent," Neill says.

"It seems to have this magical effect on the dean. The lubrication comes from wine. I do strongly believe in the power of a good glass of wine to transform."

Neill has vineyards at Gibbston and Alexandra, which supply his Two Paddocks label.

He established the label 10 years ago, when he and old friend Hollywood director Roger Donaldson (Sleeping Dogs, The World's Fastest Indian) began cultivating grapes on neighbouring blocks.

"I have three little vineyards, and we produce an extremely approachable pinot noir. It's hard to find because I make some and I drink most of it."

Neill likes to joke that his acting income finances his vineyards.

"There's a terrible truth in that. Hopefully, the wine will start paying me back, but it doesn't seem to want to at this point," he sighs.

"The blight about being an actor, is that it's unclear what you are when you're not acting. So, by growing grapes I can call myself a wine-producer. I love acting, but there are few things as rewarding as opening a good bottle of your own wine."

Not everybody is impressed with his wine, though, including his wife, make-up artist Noriko Watanabe, who won a Bafta for Memoirs of a Geisha.

"She's decided she doesn't like wine at all. She only drinks beer, but I can't afford a brewery."