Scott Neeson, who gave up everything for the poor kids in Cambodia. Scott Neeson, Former 20th Century Fox Owner Scott Neeson Filmography

29.09.2019

At 45, Scott Neeson had everything he ever dreamed of. President of the XX Century Fox Film Studio. Luxurious home. A sports car and a whole list of celebrities among friends. However, at the peak of his career, he unexpectedly quit the film business for everyone, sold all his property and disappeared from the world of cinema forever.

“I could easily work in the film industry for the rest of my life. I don’t think I was more unhappy than any of the other successful Hollywood producers, ”Scott tells me. - Looking at my life from the outside, you would say that I am lucky. I myself could not say so about myself. "

Scott found himself in the capital of Cambodia Phnom Penh almost by accident: he took his first vacation in twelve years to see Buddhist temples in Asia. Cambodia was just a stop on the list of several countries. Sitting at a local cafe, Scott gave some money to a homeless child. One of the visitors, with whom Scott talked, remarked: "If you want to really help the children, go to the city dump." Neeson himself cannot explain why, but he followed this advice.

“What I saw was a blow to my stomach,” recalls Scott, “one and a half hundred homeless children collecting garbage in the garbage to somehow live another day. A smell that you could literally touch. Like most people, I believed that special organizations should help such children - but at that moment I was standing there alone, and there was no social service nearby. Either you do something, or they stay there. I could turn around and pretend I had never seen this. But for the first time I felt like my destiny was to be here. "

Photo courtesy of Scott Neeson

On the same day, Scott rented apartments for two homeless children away from the city dump and took care of their treatment. “It only costs $ 40 a month to provide a homeless child with all the necessities in Cambodia,” says Scott. “I felt ashamed that it was so easy.”

On the way to America, Scott thought about the fact that helping children might be his real calling, and then he pondered for a long time how he could have such thoughts. “I was afraid it might be a midlife crisis. And I've seen how awful they can be in Hollywood, ”says Scott.

Over the next year, Scott spent three weeks a month in Hollywood and flew to Phnom Penh for one week. “I was waiting for some sign that I was doing everything right,” he says. - And one day I got a call from one of the five most popular actors in Hollywood. The next day we were supposed to have negotiations, the man was on a private jet, and he was served the wrong meal. He shouted into my phone - word for word - "My life was not supposed to be so difficult!" At that moment, I was standing in front of the garbage dump, watching the children slowly die in front of my eyes from hunger. If there was a sign that my whole life in Hollywood was just a decoration, a fake, it was him. It became obvious to me that I had to give up everything and go to Cambodia. "

Absolutely everyone tried to dissuade him from this decision. Nevertheless, Scott sold all of his property and calculated that this money would be enough for him to support two hundred children for eight years. All these years he has spent on founding the Cambodian Children’s Fund, which aims to provide children with education, housing and medical treatment.

Photo courtesy of Scott Neeson

Scott has been living in Cambodia for ten years. During this time, the number of children he takes care of increased to two thousand. He no longer counts only on his own money - the former Hollywood tycoon has sponsors and followers. And he still doesn't have children of his own. “I've never been married and never felt like I needed it. It's too good a life to be a single man in the Hollywood movie business, says Scott. - In Los Angeles, of course, there were beautiful women, but even in my wildest dreams I could not imagine that I would marry any of them. Now I have quite enough children to look after. In ten years they will take care of me, and I will be their grandfather. "

Scott spent his weekends in Hollywood boating with friends and playing table tennis. Now the former president of the world's largest film company spends his days at a landfill. “I never thought about going back to Los Angeles. The feeling of liberation from the corporate world that I have experienced is incomparable, ”he says. I ask him a question that arises from everyone who has heard his story: does he miss his old life? “Only by boat. She gave me an inexplicable sense of freedom. "

Scott Neeson is one of the heroes of the book "Normal People" by Alexander Murashev.

These stories became the basis of the book about the people we all try to be, but don't always know how to do.

Photo courtesy of Scott Neeson

Scott Neeson is one of the heroes of the book "Normal People" by Alexander Murashev.

These stories became the basis of the book about the people we all try to be, but don't always know how to do.

Why did the main man in cinema give up a billionaire fortune and the best job on earth?

For 45 years, Scott Neeson had everything he ever dreamed of. President of the XX Century Fox Film Studio. Luxurious home. A sports car and a whole list of celebrities among friends. However, at the peak of his career, he unexpectedly quit the film business for everyone, sold all his property and disappeared from the world of cinema forever.

I do not sleep well, and therefore at sunrise, at 5-5: 30, I am already on my feet. I put on old clothes and boots with thick soles - later I will go to the landfill. For breakfast, I drink freshly ground espresso made from local coffees. I usually need three cups to wake up. Then I go up to my office, check my e-mail, call on business.

I live in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. I like it here, although, of course, my present life bears little resemblance to the time when I lived in Los Angeles and was the president of Twentieth Century Fox.

By the time I finish sorting the mail, the whole house is already awake. I am the chairman of the Children of Cambodia Foundation (CCF), and I spend every morning in a landfill - the Foundation has set up four orphanages there, housing a total of 460 orphans. Local residents work there. Each orphanage has 140 children, and I know all of them by name. They are like family to me - after all, many of them come to us very young. They call me "Papa Scott."

I was born in Australia, but at the age of 34 I decided to move to Los Angeles. He made his own way up: he began his career as a distributor of leaflets, and eventually became the head of the studio, which filmed the Hollywood blockbusters "Braveheart", "Titanic" and "Star Wars". I had a beautiful house with a swimming pool, a Porsche is an indispensable attribute of a good life - a BMW M3, an SUV, a yacht, parties with stars. But 11 years later, I was exhausted. Filmmaking is a tough, ruthless business, and at some point I realized that it was also pointless.

In 2003, I was going to join Sony and took a five-week vacation to recover a little. I went to Phnom Penh, made friends there with a local restaurateur. He told me about the municipal dump where children live and work. I decided to take a look and was amazed - I had never seen anything like it! 11 hectares are littered with garbage, flies are swarming everywhere ... Because of the heat, the methane, which is formed during the decomposition of garbage, ignites, and fires last for months. Real hell. 3,000 families lived there; hundreds of orphans dug through the garbage in search of items suitable for sale. The children ran barefoot, wrapped in several layers of rags to keep themselves out of the fire. Many made their living by prostitution. Some of them ended up in a landfill because their parents could not or simply did not want to support them.

I realized: something needs to be done with this. I returned to Los Angeles, started working at Sony, but my thoughts were occupied by others. That year, I traveled every month to Cambodia for a week to set up a charity in this junkyard. In 2004, I sold my house, cars and yacht and moved to Phnom Penh. Now almost nothing is left of my former state.

The main event of the day is a visit to the “holy of holies” of our area in the very thick of the landfill. There is a medical center, which treats 1,100 people a month, and a kindergarten for children from two to six years old who have been subjected to violence or at risk of those whose parents suffer from alcoholism or tried to sell their children.

By noon I am returning home for lunch. My housekeeper Sophie - she's from Cambodia - makes generous servings of soup and rice. E-mail awaits me again, then fundraising meetings. Many of the locals - the fathers of these children - hate me for what I do. For them, a child is a source of income, and they are unhappy with the fact that we send children to school. They threatened to kill me more than once, and one of my employees, a local resident, was somehow thrown in the face with acid because she works for me.

In the afternoon I go to the center, where we conduct various educational programs. At five o'clock, food distribution begins for the “savage” children, as I call them - they have no housing, no family, and they did not have enough space in the shelters, so they live in a landfill. I help distribute nutritious dairy drinks, noodles, meat and fish. We watch a movie together, children ride down the slides or play on the volleyball court. I turn into a living children's horizontal bar - children climb over me from all sides, like monkeys.

Then I go to evening clubs - folk dances, music. We also have a culinary school. We try to give people work skills so that later they can get a job. I return home at about half past eight. Sophie has probably already cooked me some delicious Thai dinner - maybe chicken and curry - and then I'll watch some bad movie - I like Steven Segal's films, they are very unpretentious. I don’t want to think, worry. It is paradoxical that the very business that once tired me so much is giving me relaxation now.

I get lonely. In Hollywood, I've dated beautiful women because that's the way it was, but I haven't had anyone for five years. I am afraid that it will always be so now. When they ask me why I gave up my previous life, I tell in response how I realized that in this world I can change something. A few more letters and calls, and at midnight I go to bed and try to sleep. Now I wear a mouth guard at night so as not to grind my teeth. I keep a lot to myself ...

At 45, Scott Neeson had everything he ever dreamed of. Scott was the president of one of the largest Hollywood film studios, he had a luxury home, a sports car and a whole list of celebrities among his friends. However, at the height of his career, he unexpectedly quit the film business, sold all his property and moved to Cambodia to help homeless children with his own money.

“I could easily work in the film industry for the rest of my life. I don’t think I was less happy than any of the other successful Hollywood producers, ”says Scott.“ Looking at my life from the outside, you would say that I am lucky. But I myself did not see the point in it. "
Scott found himself in the capital of Cambodia Phnom Penh almost by accident. A keen yoga follower, he took his first vacation in 12 years to see Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout Asia. Cambodia was just a stopover in one of several countries. Sitting in a local cafe, Scott gave some money to a homeless child begging for change. One of the visitors, with whom Scott talked, remarked: "If you want to really help homeless children, go to the city dump." Scott really decided to go there.
“It was like a blow in the stomach,” recalls Scott, “one hundred and fifty homeless children living in the garbage and collecting garbage to somehow live. A smell that you could literally touch. Like most people, I believed that special organizations should help such children - but at that moment I was standing there alone, and there was no social service nearby. Either you do something, or they stay there. I could turn around and pretend that I had never seen this. But for the first time I felt like my destiny was to be here. "
On the same day, Scott rented apartments for two homeless children away from the city dump and took care of their medical treatment. “It only costs $ 40 a month to provide a homeless child with all the necessities in Cambodia,” says Scott. “I felt ashamed because it was so easy.”
On the way to America, Scott thought about the fact that helping children might be his real calling, but decided not to take any hasty actions. “I was afraid it might be a midlife crisis, and I saw how terrible they could be in Hollywood,” says Scott.
Over the next year, Scott spent 3 weeks a month in the film business and flew to Phnom Penh for one week. "At the end of the year, it became obvious to me that it was the right thing," says Scott. "I had to drop everything and go to Cambodia."
Absolutely everyone tried to dissuade him from this decision. Nevertheless, Scott sold all his property and calculated that this money would be enough for him to support two hundred children for 8 years. All these years he has spent on founding the Cambodia Children’s Fund, which aims to provide homeless children with education, housing and medical treatment.
Scott does not hide that the lack of the usual comfort was given to him very hard. “Sometimes I all miss the friends and my dog who stayed in Los Angeles. And on my boat, which gave me some kind of inexplicable feeling of freedom. I spent Sundays boating with friends and playing table tennis. Here I spend them at the dump. But I never thought about going back to Los Angeles. The feeling of liberation from the corporate world that I experienced is incomparable. "
Scott has been living in Cambodia for nine years. During this time, the number of children he takes care of has increased to 1600. Scott no longer counts only on his own money - he is looking for sponsors and followers. And he still didn't have children of his own. “I've never been married and never felt the need to do so. Being a single man in the Hollywood film business is a very good life, ”says Scott.“ There were, of course, beautiful women in Los Angeles, but I couldn't even imagine marrying them. And now I have quite enough children to look after. In 10 ten years they will take care of me, and I will be their grandfather. "