Olivia Williams: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

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

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

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

Recorded Olivia Williams said elsewhere, not written here

My mother says I had a plan to be a farmer’s wife and a violinist, going to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in my tractor.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 April 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 227 →

Roger Allam English actor

When I was a child, it was a bus driver or engine driver; then, when I was a teenager, I went to the theatre and wanted to be an actor.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 June 2017 source ↗

Ian Rankin Scottish crime writer

In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 October 2020 source ↗

Miriam Margolyes

I wanted to be a doctor, like my father.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

Ashley Jensen Scottish actress and narrator

I did want to be an actor from an early age although I briefly dabbled with the idea of being a vet until I realised you had to stick your hand up a cow’s arse.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 October 2017 source ↗