When I haven't given my all, like when I'm working and I feel I could have done better.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 366 →I wish I'd never smoked.
That I haven’t done a film I love yet.
That my parents and my siblings were so shocked and appalled by my changing my path, from university to deciding to be an actor, that they have never seen anything I’ve done.
More from Dawn O'Porter
View profile →Perimenopausal anxiety, the terrible feeling of impending doom, something awful happening to my children, writing deadlines. Apart from that, I’m quite chilled.
A drunk woman who threw epic dinner parties.
My Auntie Jane. She took me in, aged 10, and, after my mother died, healed my broken heart by filling our dining room with food and people. Still cooking at the grand old age of 89. My icon.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Harriet Walter, Johnny Flynn, Hayley Atwell, Olly Alexander, Kelly Macdonald, Laurence Fox
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All failure & regret questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject