“I was looking for someone who could be scarily alluring,” says filmmaker Gaylene Preston. “Sam’s performance imbues this complex and tormented character with simplicity and grace.”

Perfect Strangers is Sam Neill’s first New Zealand role since The Piano in 1993. In his role as The Man, he plays an obsessed lover and rugged man of the sea – a moody combination.

Neill’s most recent feature film credit is the forthcoming Wimbledon with Kirsten Dunst. Other lead roles include the Jurassic Park blockbusters, the highly acclaimed award-winner The Piano, the quirky Australian comedies The Dish and Dirty Deeds, The Horse Whisperer, The Hunt for Red October, and Dead Calm.

He was nominated for an Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for his roles in both The Piano and Death in Brunswick. He received an AFI Award for Best Actor for Evil Angels. In 1993 he was named New Zealand Entertainer of the Year and was awarded the Order of British Empire (OBE) for Services to Acting.

Neill played the lead role in the classic British television series Reilly: Ace of Spies. His most recent television roles are Granada’s remake of Dr Zhivago and Turner Broadcasting’s Linda La Plante story Framed. He is a three times Golden Globe nominee, including Best Actor in a mini-series for Merlin for which he also received an Emmy nomination.

Sam Neill is currently behind the camera directing the tele-movie The Brush Off (in The Murray Whelan Series) for his own production company Huntaway Productions.