Sue Perkins: 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 Sue Perkins said elsewhere, not written here

An eye surgeon. I had an operation on my cornea when I was little, and remember being deeply enamoured with the team who looked after me. Subsequently, I was very disappointed to learn that a degree of scientific aptitude was required for the job, which ruled me out.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 October 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Dominic West English actor

I wanted to race cars.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 December 2018 source ↗

Billy Porter American actor and singer

The male Whitney Houston.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 January 2021 source ↗

Shirley MacLaine American actress and author

At three, I knew I was too tall to be a ballerina, so that wasn’t going to happen.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

Martin Freeman English actor

I wanted to be a footballer and then a squash player – I was in with a chance because I was very good. But I fell out of love with that by 14 or 15 and joined a youth theatre.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 January 2019 source ↗

More from Sue Perkins

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Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

Anna dared me to jump off a cliff in Menorca on holiday a couple of years ago. I did. I fell 30m through the air, hit the water at an odd angle and shattered my coccyx.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 October 2018 source ↗