Sam Neill says the war in Ukraine wouldn’t happen if “we had a woman running Russia”
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, famed for his roles n Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and the BBC’s Peaky Blinders series, has spoken out on the war in Ukraine. He opined that “too much testosterone” exists in the balance and said it would never have started if a woman was in charge of Russia.
The 75-year-old actor, born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, recently joined TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, who said Neill praised the women with whom he’s worked in his new biography, Did I Ever Tell You This? which hit the shelves today.
“I think women, generally speaking, are better actors than men, and I always love working opposite a talented woman because I find my own game lifts,” Neill said. “I do think women are better at most things, actually. I am still mourning the loss of our prime minister in New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern; she is a terrible loss.”
The former prime minister of New Zealand stepped down earlier this year. “I would like to see women running most countries,” Neill added. “I suspect there wouldn’t be a Ukraine problem at the moment if we had a woman running Russia. It’s about too much testosterone.”
The new book also sees Neill discuss his diagnosis of stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer. Thankfully, the actor is now in remission. “I got a cancer scare about a year ago, but I’ve been in remission for about eight months now,” Neill told Kelly. “So I’m in tip-top health, and I’m starting work next week, so I’m all good.”
He continued, revealing that he wrote most of his book while undergoing treatment. “It was therapeutic for me,” Neill revealed. “I found myself entertaining myself; it would cheer me up on what otherwise would be a dark day. It is not a cancer book; it’s a book about life and love.”
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