Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
To find as many moments to laugh as possible.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 137 →Redemption. People can be redeemed, goals can be redeemed.
Rose Ayling-Ellis
British actress
You have to ride the wave and never wait for it to be calm, because it never will be.
Edward Enninful
Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist
That there is no ideal life. Disappointments sit around every corner, so enjoy the here and now.
More from Paapa Essiedu
View profile →After losing my mum still managing to finish drama school, because that was really difficult. I lost her in the first year.
Called me the N-word.
In order to raise money to pay for myself to go to the National Youth Theatre, I performed a medley of my drama school speeches and some songs for my entire school. Considering I can’t sing, this was terrible. I did U Remind Me by Usher and Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T’s. They paid £2 each – basically, to laugh at me.
In 2016, the moment my agent rang me to tell me I’d got the part of Hamlet for the RSC. While I was on the phone, I looked to my left and turned to the right, and a bus whizzed by and the wing mirror was so close to me that it knocked my hat off.
A really bad habit of eating sweets before I go to sleep.
I would really love to know my parents as an adult. I lost my dad when I was 14 and my mum when I was 20.
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