Viv Albertine: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Viv Albertine said elsewhere, not written here

I had no female role models growing up. I lived an incredibly sheltered life: there was no TV at home and we had no visitors. It wasn’t until rock and pop came into my life that I concocted myself as a role model.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 195 →

Anna Friel English actress

A barrister or a pop star.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 August 2019 source ↗

Dominic Cooper English actor

A librarian. Or a racing driver for Ferrari F1.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 August 2017 source ↗

@aliabbasi builder

A pilot

Emilia Fox English actress and presenter

A cellist, inspired by my mum and dad’s friendship with Jacqueline du Pré, and seeing a documentary about her.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 October 2018 source ↗

More from Viv Albertine

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Question What does love feel like? Relationships

It’s like digging a field together: it’s hard work, not very glamorous, but you can stand back and think, “We did that.”

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Question What song would you like played at your funeral? Death & what remains

I am going straight to cremation like David Bowie, so there would be no funeral.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work

In my first job in film, a giant bloke dressed like a sumo wrestler asked me to get his G-string out of his arse. He said he couldn’t reach it.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗

Question Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? Failure & regret

I wish I’d told my mother that, in all the years I knew her, she was never once boring. We weren’t demonstrative, so that would have meant that I loved her.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 October 2020 source ↗