The question

What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?

Originally asked

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

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

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

MF
Meghann Fahy
Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I had a casting director once stop me in the middle of an audition and tell me to go wash my face in the bathroom because she felt my makeup was too distracting, but I wasn’t wearing any. It was mortifying. It felt like a power play and I was so young, I didn’t know what to do.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 122 →
Seann Walsh
“What is Seann Walsh and how do we make it die?” It was online, thankfully. It wasn’t in Sainsbury’s.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 January 2026 source ↗
Chiwetel Ejiofor English actor
“You’ll never do well as an actor unless you change your name.” I’m not going to say who.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2024 source ↗
Ciarán Hinds
As a young actor, again at the Citizens theatre, I was making an exit and a theatregoer leaned over the balcony and said, “You’re terrible!”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 July 2025 source ↗

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