In South Africa I washed cars, I danced in parking lots and shopping malls, and was a children’s entertainer.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
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 was a bailiff for half a morning. I couldn’t stand it.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2019 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 229 →Bicycle courier: it was literally dicing with death on a minute-to-minute basis for 12 hours a day. It was terrifying and exhausting.
Siri Hustvedt
American novelist, essayist, poet
I was a floor model briefly at Bloomingdale’s in New York in 1979. I hated it. When no one was watching, I would lock myself in the toilet and read.
Kiefer Sutherland
British and Canadian actor
I’ve been lucky enough to act for 35 years. The only other job I had was as a cook at a drive-in restaurant, and I enjoyed that as well.
More from David Harewood
View profile →After my documentary aired. I suddenly had a bit of panic, because it’s very personal. I couldn’t watch it on the night, I was so scared. The next day people were walking up to me on the street and telling me their life story. It was extraordinary.
I would have had a bit more belief in myself: I would have reached for America sooner.
A warm knowing.
Having my family closer.
My first girlfriend when I left drama school. I was a bit of tart.
I had no idea. When I was a week away from leaving school, a teacher said, “We’ve been talking in the staffroom and we all think you should be an actor.” I thought, “That’s exactly what I want.” The rest is history.
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 · A–Z
Adeel Akhtar, Adjoa Andoh, Adrian Dunbar, Adrian Edmondson, Aidan Gillen, Alison Steadman
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