There are yards and yards and yards of abuse every day. I ignore the lot of it.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 August 2023 source ↗
failure
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
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.
One of 24 questions in The Q&A here.
On the record
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
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I stopped drinking 18 or 19 years ago, and in an argument someone who will remain nameless said: “Oh just go and have a drink.” It was nasty.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 September 2023 source ↗
There’s a tweet somewhere saying, “If you like Africa so much, why don’t you go back there.” It was because I dedicated one of my dances to my three mothers – Mother Africa, Mother Nature and my mother.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 September 2023 source ↗
When I was a child, a member of staff at Wood End Assessment Centre [a former children’s home in Wigan] bellowed: “He copies them poems off of Bob Marley records.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗
That I am a terrible actor.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 October 2023 source ↗
The music journalist Paul Morley described me as bland.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 November 2023 source ↗
It’s that bad, I’d never repeat it. I’ll just say it was particularly cruel and incredibly racist. It was somebody that I used to date, at the end of the relationship, and it hurt very deeply.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 December 2023 source ↗
It happened when I was younger, somewhere outside London. We were on bikes, and this older girl pulled up and said something racist that I won’t repeat. I will never forget that, because it was the first time, and I was like, “Oh, I am feeling different from everyone around me right now”.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 December 2023 source ↗
“We’d love you to be on the cover of our magazine and we’ll give you a makeover.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 December 2023 source ↗
“Sorry, I don’t mean to insult you, but did you know you look a bit like that actress Siobhán McSweeney?”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2023 source ↗
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.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗
I’ve heard it all: too fat, too short, no talent. Those are the things that cut me deep when I was younger, but now they drive me.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 January 2024 source ↗
A friend and I were talking about eating disorders and he said: “Well, we never have to worry about you not eating.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 February 2024 source ↗
When I was first acting, in college, a relative came and saw me in Hedda Gabler and she said: “Look in the mirror, you’re not an actor. An actor looks like Mel Gibson.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 February 2024 source ↗
“You pinko!” by a Tory minister signing off at the end of an interview with me during the EU referendum campaign.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 March 2024 source ↗
People give me a hard time about my hats. Over Christmas, this drunk woman shouted something about me having a shit hat because I had a red beanie on. Last week at a party, someone gave me a hard time for wearing a cap. I just think about melting ice caps when this happens.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2024 source ↗
Go back to where you came from.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 April 2024 source ↗
A radio presenter said I had yellow teeth – to my face. When I was 45, a manager in LA said I was too old to work in Hollywood; and then she rang my agent and said, “Can you tell your client never to wear that perfume again because it made me feel sick.”
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2024 source ↗
Somebody wrote that my voice was more numbing than novocaine.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2024 source ↗
“Your cooking sucks” – before I learned to cook in Covid.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 September 2024 source ↗
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