Quotes

"Of all the characters I've played, I think I have more in common with that guy than with Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) referring to Carl Fitzgerald in Death in Brunswick (1990). Who Weekly (NZ) 8/23/93.

Referring to The Simpsons (1989): "I'm playing a cat burglar. I've made it. This is the high point of my career. I'm really chuffed". EW, 7/23/93.

"Perhaps we should look at somewhere else where they recently used the time-old bribe of tax cuts, and see how it worked. In 2000, George W. Bush, under the reasonable sounding 'compassionate conservatism', offered huge tax cuts. And he delivered. Take a look at America now. The rich are certainly richer, but the economy is in the tank, a healthy surplus has been converted into a massive deficit, and the U.S. is a place that cannot even afford the basics. Like maintaining levees in low-lying Louisiana. Might I suggest that tax cuts led indirectly to the flooding of New Orleans?".

If all I did was acting, I'd go out of my mind.

The pathetic thing about actors is they don't feel valid unless they're acting.

(2012, on My Brilliant Career (1979)) A most important role for me, I must say, because that's the film that took me out of New Zealand, the film that allowed me to live and work in Australia, which I love. Yeah, that was probably more transformative than anything else I've done, in a way. Without that film, I never would've-prior to that, I'd done Sleeping Dogs (1977), and I thought, "That was a one-off, I'll never do another film." And if you look at Sleeping Dogs, you think, "Well, I wouldn't use that bugger again." But I did get cast in Brilliant Career, I kind of understood a little bit more about what was necessary, and it was a great opportunity for me. That film changed me into an actor rather than just a part-time thespian.

(2012, on Dead Calm (1989)) Well, that was fantastically good fun, actually, although quite a lot of the time we were seasick and cold and wet and stuff like that. It was a very interesting film to do, as there were only three characters, you know, but it works very well, and it built quite a few careers. For [director] Phillip Noyce, it launched him into big action films, and there's this Australian actress called Nicole Kidman in it who you might've heard of...

(2012, on filming Sleeping Dogs (1977) and working with Warren Oates) You see, that was my first feature film of all, with my friend Roger Donaldson, and there I really had no idea what I was doing. In fact, none of us did. Apart from Michael Seresin, who shot it, no one on that production had ever made a feature film before. In fact, there hadn't been a feature film made in New Zealand for something like 17 years. So we were really... We lit a little candle, which didn't illuminate much of the darkness in front of us, but we got through it. It's a very uneven film, and I'm pretty uneven in it. Oh, actually, the other person on the film who had any experience was, of course, the wonderful Warren Oates. He came in for about two weeks, I think, and... He discovered on day one, I think, that in the area of New Zealand where we were working, they grow the best marijuana, and so he was basically smoking joints all day. In some of the scenes where he's playing Col. Willoughby, a U.S. army advisor in New Zealand, he's addressing his men with his hands behind his back, and you might even possibly detect the little curving smoke behind his right shoulder, because he wouldn't even put the joint aside when the camera was rolling. He just put it behind his back! But Warren was a lovely guy, and when he left-I'll never forget this, actually: He shook my hand, and he said, "Goodbye, Sam! I'll see you in the movies!" It was such a surprising thing for him to say, but I was very touched by it. I never saw him again, because he died rather young not very long after that. But he lived hard, you know. And he had some great stories of the madness of working with Sam Peckinpah.

[2014, on socializing with Michael Williams and Warren Clarke during the making of Enigma (1982)] My liver is still recovering.

[on changing his name from Nigel to Sam, aged ten] I saved myself a lifetime of pain.

[Tell us a secret.] I was christened Nigel. It set me back for years.

[Which living person do you most admire, and why?] My brother, Michael. He is an academic and has devoted his life to scholarship; my life seems trivial by comparison. Bastard.

[What did you want to be when you were growing up?] A soldier like my father. I would have been useless.

[Which words or phrases do you most overuse?] I'm sorry to say, the word is fuck.

[What keeps you awake at night?] Worrying about insomnia.

[What do you most dislike about your appearance?] Pretty much all of it. But these weird fat bits on my hips - yuck!

[What song would you like played at your funeral?] I Will Remember You, by Sarah McLachlan. That'll choke the bastards up if nothing else will.

[What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?] Sloth. No, wait, greed. No, gluttony.

[What has been your biggest disappointment?] My complete ineptitude at sport.

[What is the worst job you've done?] Everyone says it's the Fifa film [United Passions], but I had a marvellous time.

[Who would play you in the film of your life?] Tilda Swinton.

[What makes you unhappy?] Solitude. I crave company.

[What is your guiltiest pleasure?] Come Dine With Me. Everything you need to know about the British in one tidy hour.

[What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?] "Did we sleep together? Really? Are you quite sure?"

[on working with Meryl Streep on Plenty (1985) and A Cry in the Dark (1988)] By the time we did the second I was very comfortable with her. She scared the shit out of me in the first one. I was too young and too bedazzled by her. I was daunted. And I think on day one we had a sex scene. I wonder how many actors have done sex scenes with Meryl Streep. Probably just a handful.