Another actress once said to me, “I’ve told you huge lies to make you feel good about yourself.” I’m not going to say who.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Someone said that I had a laugh like Jimmy Carr.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →Glenda Jackson said I was an amateur during rehearsal for The White Devil at the Old Vic. I called her a cow, but that was inadequate.
Racial and homophobic slurs – the F- and N-words. When I moved to London, people screamed the F-word from their cars, and that stings.
Liev Schreiber
American actor
“Not interested.” Who? Many people.
More from Alex Lawther
View profile →A receding hairline.
I would try and get to being comfortable with myself quicker.
My failed driving test a few months ago. I got three majors and by the end of it the examiner couldn’t wait to get out of the car.
You can only do one thing at a time.
I spent about five years living in Paris thinking I would become Kristin Scott Thomas, and it didn’t happen.
Last year, during four days in January, when I directed Rhoda, my second short film, in a tiny house in Camberwell with Juliet Stevenson and Emma D’Arcy.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 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? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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