Olly Alexander
English singer and actor
I can be an overthinker and a vicious self-critic.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 March 2025 source ↗
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What song would you like played at your funeral?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Self-criticism.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2014 source ↗
Others on this question
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Carl Barât
English musician
Fear and all of its consequences.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 March 2022 source ↗
Daryl McCormack
Irish actor
Oversharing. I long to be intimately connected to people and sometimes, among strangers, I don’t read the room.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 February 2023 source ↗
Impatience. The inability to ever finish a knitting project.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2018 source ↗
More from John Cleese
View profile →There are different kinds of happiness, but the simplest was when I was 13 because what one had to do was so obvious.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2012 source ↗
Tchaikovsky's 1812, sung by Barry Manilow.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2012 source ↗
The demise of the London Daily Mail.
Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 16 October 2014 source ↗
Michael Frayn – such modesty, talent, kindness and bottomless curiosity.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2012 source ↗
Lack of self-criticism.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2014 source ↗
More on identity & self
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Adam Kay, Adam Lambert, Adele Parks, Adrian Dunbar, Al Franken, Alex Hassell
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