Sam Neill reckons that "the only thing I can halfway do that's decent is acting". Over a multidecade career, the self-deprecating actor, winemaker and director (Cinema of Unease) has played cops, criminals, the anti-Christ, a man on the run, and a priest who thinks he was once a dog — plus at least 100 other screen roles.

In this extended ScreenTalk Legends interview, the star of The Piano, Death in Brunswick and Hunt for the Wilderpeople talks about:

• Discovering his crippling stammer disappeared when he got onstage (1 minute in)

• How playing a priest in Ashes (1975) fooled friends into thinking he'd found God (2 minutes)

• The terror of starring in his first feature Sleeping Dogs (1977) — and how making documentaries fed into his acting (4 minutes)

• Imposter syndrome (7 minutes), advice for young actors (8 minutes) and leaving New Zealand (11 minutes)

• Feeling far more encouraged when he was working in Australia than in New Zealand (13 minutes)

• Dragging Holly Hunter outside with an axe, while filming The Piano (14 minutes)

• How he has changed as a performer (18 minutes)
• Turning down 2008 movie Dean Spanley more than once — and how fellow cast member Peter O'Toole taught him to "never waste a word" (23 minutes) 
• How directing Australian TV movie The Brush Off was one of the greatest yet most exhausting experiences of his life (25 minutes)
• The New Zealand project he's most proud of — and his special theory of Kiwi films being either the West Coast or East Coast variety (28 minutes)