Anjelica Huston Reveals She Privately Battled Cancer, Is Now 4 Years ‘in the Clear’

Anjelica Huston is opening up about a topic she hasn’t shared before.

During an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in this week’s issue, the actress, 73, reveals for the first time that she had a “bout with cancer.”

Huston says she was diagnosed after the release of her film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum in 2019.

“That was a very serious moment for me,” she says over the phone from her ranch near the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. “I managed to survive it, and I’m proud of myself.”

“It’s not something that came lightly,” she continues of her diagnosis, the type of which she wants to keep private. “It came as a big shock, but it made me conscious of what I shouldn’t do, of places I shouldn’t go. One of those places was taking life too seriously. So now when the opportunity arises, I laugh, and I try not to make a big deal out of things.”

Now, Huston says, she’s “in the clear.”

“I’m at the four-year mark, and that means so much to me,” she says. “It’s a fantastic thing. I’m very proud of myself, and I’ve been very lucky. My doctors have been wonderful.”

When she found out she was cancer free four years ago, Huston — who still does regular scans — kept her celebration simple and “just walked in my garden and smelled the roses and thought how clever I was.”
After six years of keeping her cancer battle private, Huston felt ready to share what she’s been through in hopes of uplifting others.

“Sometimes you feel like you don’t want to talk about it for the obvious reasons, but there’s a lot to be said for talking about it and getting it out there and celebrating the fact that one’s come through,” she says. “Life is tenuous and wonderful. It also gives you the idea that the world is big and you can somehow match up to it. That you’re ready for whatever happens.”

And Huston certainly isn’t slowing down: She next stars as Lady Tressilian in BritBox’s three-part limited series Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero. The first episode of the murder mystery premieres April 16, with subsequent episodes airing over the next two days.

While filming the series in the countryside of England, Huston was reminded of her childhood growing up in Ireland.

“The landscape around Bath is very much what I grew up with,” she says. “It was lovely. The local gentry were very reminiscent of the women I grew up with in the west of Ireland who were horse-loving riders, farmers, noble women.”

Huston also enjoyed every moment of getting to play most of Lady Tressilian’s scenes from bed.

“I loved playing from bed,” she says. “It was very relaxing and wonderfully undemanding. I’ve always liked bed anyway. It’s one of my preferences and now I’m convinced, absolutely. It’s almost a prerequisite.”

When asked if she ever thinks of retirement, Huston is quick to say “no.”

“I can’t imagine such a thing,” she says. “I think it would be too much, even for me.”

Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero premieres over three nights starting April 16 on BritBox.