Sam Neill aces new role alongside Annette Bening, Jake Lacy and Alison Brie

Sam Neill couldn’t be further from his character in the new screen adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall.

Sam Neill. Picture: Yianni Aspradakis/Binge

New Zealand-born, Aussie-claimed actor Sam Neill couldn’t be further from his character in new screen adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall.

“He is a big juicy character,” Neill, 76, tells Insider on Zoom from his farm across the ditch.

In the anticipated release based on the northern beaches author’s New York Times best-selling novel, Neill plays Stan, a former tennis coach and head of the seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family.

The formidable Annette Bening is his wife Joy in the six-part series, and their complex adult children are played by White Lotus’s Jake Lacy and Community’s Alison Brie, as well as Conor Merrigan-Turner and Essie Randles.

“I mean, most families aren’t as dysfunctional as this one, albeit it has a very shiny veneer,” says the Jurassic Park star, who is in remission after being diagnosed with blood cancer two years ago.

Annette Bening, Jake Lacy and Sam Neill in Apples Never Fall. Picture: Vince Valitutti/Peacock

“But I think if there’s one takeaway from this, it’s do not bring your children up as if you’re coach,” he said.

“The character is very different from anything I’ve particularly recognised in myself — apart from the fact he can be really stupid and laughable, that’s true of me too.

Sam Neill and Annette Bening star in the six-part serie..

“The alpha male, biggest dog in the yard thing is something I don’t recognise but, as an actor, it gives you a lot of room to chew on.”

Neill says he’s been a big fan of Moriarty since her first TV book adaptation starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies.

“Your compatriot Liane Moriarty, I’ve been a big fan of her since Big Little Lies, and Apples Never Fall has been re-set in Miami obviously — we shot it on the Gold Coast but I’m told it closely resembles Florida Keys,” he explains.

“Liane was an executive producer and she had an eye on things.”

Despite being part of the same family, each character is so different, allowing the audience to identify to someone on their screens.

“You’re full of foibles and foolishness, and even if you love people ferociously, like Stan does, you can just get things wrong — terribly wrong,” Neill says.

Shooting on the Gold Coast and not the US meant the actors were effectively “on vacation”, so the cast really bonded.

“Because we enjoyed each other so much in an osmosis process, you see that on screen,” he says.

So, has he ever played the good game of tennis himself?

“I’ve always played a little bit of tennis very unconvincingly,” he laughs.

Apples Never Fall premieres on Thursday, March 14, on Binge