Actor Sam Neill says he’s prepared for the day a new anti-cancer drug he is taking for a rare blood disease stops working.

Doctors switched the 76-year-old to the medication when earlier chemotherapy treatment failed after three months.

The drug proved successful and Neill has been in remission from stage three cancer for 12 months.

But speaking to the ABC’s Australian Story, which aired on Monday night, Neill said doctors had advised him that drug, too, would eventually fail.

“I’m prepared for that,” Neill said.

Every two weeks Neill has infusions that are “keeping me alive”. They will have to continue indefinitely.

Neill at the world premiere of The Portable Door in Sydney in March. Photo: Getty

Neill said he had contemplated his mortality, and while dying would be “annoying” he was not “remotely afraid”.

But what did terrify him was the thought of not being able to work. He said retirement from acting “fills me with horror”.

So he’s focusing on his upcoming projects, including television series Apples Never Fall based on Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel.

“I can’t tell you how privileged I am to spend that amount of time with so many actors, so many of whom I’ve really enjoyed and so many of whom I’ve really admired,” he said in the interview recorded before the Hollywood strike.

Neill wrote candidly about his fight with cancer in his recent autobiography, Did I Ever Tell You This?, saying he would have to undergo treatment for the rest of his life.

But earlier this year he told fans on Instagram not to worry about him since he’s “alive and kicking.”

Neill revealed he was diagnosed with stage three angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma during the publicity tour for the most recent Jurassic Park film, Jurassic Park: Dominion, in March last year.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a relatively rare cancer that develops in the lymphatic system.

The British-born, New Zealand-raised actor has appeared in more than 70 films, working alongside actors including Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Judy Davis and Jeff Goldblum.

His Hollywood roles include his portrayal of Dr Allan Grant in the Jurassic Park films, and as a tough Irish cop in Peaky Blinders.

He also starred in The Hunt for Red October, Event Horizon and The Piano.

He auditioned for the role of James Bond in the 1980s at the insistence of a pushy agent but was reluctant to pursue it, concerned appearing as 007 would typecast him.

His Australian body of work includes The Dish and My Brilliant Career.