Jessica Brown Findlay: 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 Jessica Brown Findlay said elsewhere, not written here

A ballet dancer. I danced from age two to 19. Giving up was not a choice; I had complications in an ankle operation.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 195 →

Armistead Maupin American writer

Not a lawyer, which was what I told everyone, because my father wanted me to be one.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 August 2019 source ↗

Patricia Hodge English actress

A ballet dancer, but it changed to being an actress when I got put in a school play.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2018 source ↗

Adrian Edmondson English actor, comedian, musician and writer

I only ever wanted to be an actor or a rock star. I was suspended from school in the sixth form and allowed back only when I promised to join the army. But I lied.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 July 2018 source ↗

Jack Davenport

Not a child, which was short-sighted of me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2024 source ↗

More from Jessica Brown Findlay

View profile →

Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

My nan. She lost her husband at the end of 2019 and over the past year she’s been in isolation, but every single week when we speak, she’s full of hope.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗