The question
When were you most embarrassed?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
When I was a teenager, I laughed at a joke I didn’t understand. Whoever told the joke turned to me and said, “What are you laughing at?” Of course I didn’t know and he obviously knew I didn’t know. It was excruciating.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 May 2023 source ↗
Being an actor is inherently embarrassing. You have to embrace it.
Do you have 10 pages? Once, I was dancing in a costume that was like a corset. During a move, the corset ripped and exploded, and I had to carry on doing the number practically in my jockstrap.
When I was 17, my friends and I threw a fashion show for a breast cancer charity. Breast cancer is something my mum went through when I was 14, so prevention is very close to my heart. Our singer, who was performing during the fashion show, dropped out at the last minute so I had to step in. It’s on video, and my sister always brings it up.
When my trousers split on stage in Burn the Floor in Australia. I had always been warned to wear my flesh underwear and I did not that day.
The early family skiing holidays – before I’d broken an ankle and Gerald had torn a ligament – were just wonderful.
The amazing women standing up against the Taliban.
I’ve always been frightened of the dark. I sometimes wonder whether it stems from being away filming from the age of five. I can remember being devastatingly homesick and having a little nightlight I used to look at to reassure myself things were all right.
Doing an episode of Doctors was a bit of a nadir.
Mental cruelty.
Minding not being liked.
Daryl McCormack, Omid Djalili, Fay Ripley, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ed Harris
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