Rosanna Arquette: 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 Rosanna Arquette said elsewhere, not written here

A ballet dancer, and for a while I wanted to teach children with Down’s syndrome.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Bear Grylls

A soldier and adventure guy.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗

Edward Enninful Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist

In African families, you can be one of three things: a doctor, a lawyer or a failure. I wanted to be an Egyptologist, but things worked out in the end.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2022 source ↗

Suzanne Vega American singer-songwriter

An astronaut, a writer, a dancer.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2017 source ↗

Ann Patchett American author

A writer. Always.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 April 2017 source ↗

More from Rosanna Arquette

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Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work

A really bad film for no money: the director had no idea what he was doing and I was wondering: why am I here?

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗

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

About 40 years ago I drove off an embankment and tumbled down a huge hill. I was standing in the field with my car smashed like a can, saying, “Am I dead?” because I had seen myself dead in the car. Then someone said, “Are you OK?” and I didn’t have a scratch. I believe it was an angel experience.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2021 source ↗