Olivia Williams: 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 Olivia Williams said elsewhere, not written here

My mother says I had a plan to be a farmer’s wife and a violinist, going to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in my tractor.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Cheryl Strayed Author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things

By the time I was 19, I was saying, “I’m going to be a writer. This is my path.”

Recorded Tina Essmaker, The Great Discontent, 10 July 2012 source ↗

Joan Jett American singer, songwriter and guitarist

An astronaut, an archaeologist, an actor, and a musician.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 November 2020 source ↗

Ashley Jensen Scottish actress and narrator

I did want to be an actor from an early age although I briefly dabbled with the idea of being a vet until I realised you had to stick your hand up a cow’s arse.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 October 2017 source ↗

Louis Walsh Irish music manager and television personality

I just wanted to work in music. I didn’t want a real job.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 September 2017 source ↗

More from Olivia Williams

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Question What most recently made you cry? Identity & self

In rehearsals. The play is very funny about mothers and daughters, but one of the gags hit a raw nerve.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗

Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight

People are often traumatised by the sleeplessness in the first years of their children’s lives, but I was insanely happy to be married and have two children. The only dark cloud was how much we were loathed for having babies who slept through the night.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗