Joseph Fiennes: If you could edit your past, what would you change?

If you could edit your past, what would you change?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Joseph Fiennes said elsewhere, not written here

Doc Brown proved that editing the past is disastrous.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 October 2008 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 203 →

Toby Stephens

There was a very large part of my 20s where I was an alcoholic, and an addict. When I lost my dad to cirrhosis, I knew that the only difference between us was that, tragically, he couldn’t stop whereas I could.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 June 2026 source ↗

Sheena Easton Scottish singer

I read too much science fiction to mess with anything. I’d be terrified that, by changing something, my kids wouldn’t be mine.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 April 2017 source ↗

James Norton English actor

I would have started therapy earlier.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 July 2022 source ↗

Kelsey Grammer American actor

My sister’s death – I would love to meet her kids. [Karen Grammer was 18 when she was abducted, raped and murdered.]

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 June 2016 source ↗