Paul Giamatti
American actor
This year? Losing to François Englert and Pete Higgs. I truly thought I had that in the bag.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The main courses are never as tasty as starters. But enough about my sex life.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 366 →
Vanessa Redgrave
British actress and activist
To lose my fourth baby.
Andrew O'Hagan
Scottish author
The internet. Such potential for good and for levelling up the world, but such a quagmire in reality.
Eve Ensler
American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist
That most men have not yet come to understand the impact and the devastating consequences of violence against women.
More from Justin Hawkins
View profile →“I would love to go on a date with you, but I’d be too embarrassed.”
The best way to spend time is to waste it.
A flight from Paraguay to South Africa that went badly wrong. The plane nearly fell out of the sky and the oxygen masks dropped. People were screaming but the pilot saved the day, and then apparently never flew again.
I cried watching the movie Coco with my daughter.
Absolutely nothing.
Whoever has to use the bathroom after my brother.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Tracey Ullman, Suzi Quatro, Michael Palin, David Hasselhoff, Sheena Easton, Steph McGovern
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject