The question
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.
I used to write my own plays. And I’ve always kept diaries, although not for the past five years. I just really enjoy writing and always had a desire to maybe do it in conjunction with directing, but didn’t have the confidence.
N/A, N/A, The Guardian, 30 January 2021 source ↗
An air traffic controller.
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
I haven't met one of these exonerated individuals who can sleep. Virtually all of them have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
I’ve seen it a lot, I’ve been it, and I’m not afraid of it! You can be a woman on the edge, but also be a soulful woman, a playful woman and a funny woman. You can be all those things at once.
I felt very unhinged in my early 30s and kind of mentally not well. There was something very, very sobering about that time and letting go of people that weren’t very healthy for me. Unfortunately, a lot of that has been in relation to men, I suppose.
My mother. She raised four children pretty much on her own. My father was around, but always out at work.
I felt very unhinged in my early 30s and kind of mentally not well. There was something very, very sobering about that time and letting go of people that weren’t very healthy for me. Unfortunately, a lot of that has been in relation to men, I suppose.
I’ve seen it a lot, I’ve been it, and I’m not afraid of it! You can be a woman on the edge, but also be a soulful woman, a playful woman and a funny woman. You can be all those things at once.
My son's second birthday. It was a typical autumn day – bright sky, cold fingers. He was dressed as a skeleton and we ate chilli in the garden.
Dominic West, Edward Fox, Riz Ahmed, Pauline McLynn, Julie Andrews, Samuel West
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