Neill starred as the film\u2019s antagonist, Alisdair Stewart, a colonial settler who enters an arranged marriage with mute Scottish immigrant and pianist Ada McGrath (played by Holly Hunter).<\/p>\n
Dame Jane Campion pictured with Sir Sam Neill during the Cannes Film Festival presentation of her film The Piano in May 1993. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Piano received rave reviews and a flood of accolades, including three Oscars and a Golden Globe, with Campion becoming the first woman to receive the Cannes Film Festival\u2019s coveted Palme d\u2019Or in 1993.<\/p>\n
Aside from being \u201ceffortlessly handsome\u201d, Campion said Neill was one of the few big movie stars to come out of New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n
Despite this, she found him considerate and supportive, looking after her and others on set as he took on the jarring role of Stewart.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stomped through mud, organised dinners, bossed me around at rushes and told me off if he thought I was letting the lighting get too dark,\u201d Campion said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved him as Stewart. I can remember gasping as he pulled Holly [Hunter] out of his hut, into the streaming rain and mud, with a force I had not expected but at once realised the story needed. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe already knew, Stewart\u2019s jealousy was terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Sam Neill as Alisdair Stewart in Dame Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning film The Piano (1993).<\/p>\n
Campion recalled later visiting Neill and his then-wife, Japanese makeup artist Noriko Watanabe, at their Queenstown home to see the \u201cintense beauty\u201d of Central Otago and the surrounding regions.<\/p>\n
She said the visit marked the beginning of her own family\u2019s infatuation with the deep south.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs time went on we sometimes confided in one another, shared our life stories, talked like girls and discussed prep for the end of life. <\/p>\n
\u201cPart of Sam\u2019s response to his cancer diagnosis<\/a> was to write a brilliant, entertaining memoir<\/a> and he wanted me to check The Piano chapter. <\/p>\n \u201cTurns out it was a lonely time for him, but he never showed it \u2013 except perhaps on screen.”<\/p>\n Campion said she saw Neill at several points this year, beginning with a stay at his Two Paddocks winery to celebrate him being cancer-free and the renewed outlook on his future.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that time I was struck by a gentleness and peacefulness, a grace that was all about him,\u201d Campion said.<\/p>\n \u201cThen only a few months later he was suddenly in hospital at St Vincent\u2019s in Sydney. <\/p>\n \u201cI dropped in with coffee and food. Rachel Ward was there too and we all joked and chatted. <\/p>\n \u201cThe sense of love in and around Sam had intensified. We didn\u2019t discuss illness, it seemed a waste of beautiful time.\u201d<\/p>\n On her last visit to Neill in hospital, Campion said she brought a watercolour set to fill his time with painting and sketches, while they talked about her time at the Split Enz reunion concert, which Neill had followed from his bed.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goodbye was a kiss, followed by him thanking me for coming by, for taking the trouble. <\/p>\n \u201cDid we know it would be the last time? I didn\u2019t think about it, I don\u2019t think he did either.\u201d<\/p>\n Each time Campion visited Neill recently had been \u201can intoxicating experience\u201d, she said, with the actor appearing at peace and full of love.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t seem to care about anything. He was just gently, gracefully there \u2013 but now he isn\u2019t.\u201c <\/p>\nDame Jane Campion and Sir Sam Neill at the AMEX Gala Party for Campion’s film, The Power of the Dog, in London, 2021. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n