Lupita Nyong'o
Actress
I waited tables for one night at the turn of the century. They were being fussy about how I put the food on the plates, and I couldn’t have cared less.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I’ve done some acting jobs where everybody’s gone out of their way to make sure that you feel annoying and easily replaceable.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 September 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 229 →
Martin Sheen
American actor
That would have to be a film called Pickup On 101. It was a very interesting story, about a wandering musician and an old guy on his way back to his home town to spend his last days, but they made it into a pile of dishonest trash.
Cold call market research at uni.
Zoe Ball
British TV and radio personality
The failed attempt at a home perm on myself in the 80s. I wanted to look like Kelly McGillis in Top Gun.
More from Romola Garai
View profile →Those abduction situations where you’re packed in a bunker for 30 years.
Confident, stressed, greedy.
A sense of optimism.
I have a deep-rooted fear of being in trouble. I once tried to sneak into the back of a photography exhibition with my husband when one of our kids was in a pushchair. We’d arrived late and he suggested we go in through the gift shop and see the last room. As we poked our heads round the door, the security guard noticed us. I shouted, “That man’s trying to get in!”, then ran away.
I’ve never read any Proust.
Anybody who works in frontline mental health services for the NHS.
More on craft & work
- What do you consider your greatest achievement? 192 answers
- How do you know when a piece of work is finished? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively blocked or stuck? 66 answers
- How does a new work begin for you? 63 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you do? 46 answers
- What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job? 41 answers
Also answered this
Mo Gilligan, Lupita Nyong'o, Jenna Coleman, Ralf Little, Gavin Rossdale, Paula Wilcox
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject