Sofia Helin: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

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

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded Sofia Helin said elsewhere, not written here

When I had a bicycle accident when I was 24. I was on a bridge going down; the bicycle broke and I smashed to the ground, face first. I broke my jaw and my teeth, and had to have plastic surgery. It all took half a year and then, funnily enough, I got my first big job – a TV series – with what I thought of then as this big, ugly scar.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Cory Taylor Novelist and screenwriter

How many times I could have died before now, and in how many different ways. And yet I came close only once: a speeding sedan ran a red light, hit three other vehicles, and jack-knifed into my rear wheel split second after I’d stepped out of my parked car. A bystander described the scene to me later. “You were a millimetre away from losing your legs,” he said.

Recorded Edited extract from Dying: A Memoir, Text Publishing, The Guardian, 17 May 2016 source ↗

Marc Almond English singer

The motorcycle crash, but also when a neon sign fell on my head in Soho in the 90s.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2017 source ↗

Emily Mortimer British actress

Giving birth is much more treacherous than people let on.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 October 2020 source ↗

Tom Ellis Welsh actor

Every time I let my wife drive.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 September 2021 source ↗