Helen Mirren: What trait do you most dislike in other people?

The question

What trait do you most dislike in other people?

Originally asked

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

A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.

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

Helen Mirren

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Serially telling endless boring jokes and sexism and racism and homophobia (they often go together).

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2010 source ↗

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Anne Enright Novelist and short-story writer

I find it really interesting the way people are drawn to power, usually male power, sometimes in its dark mode. I wonder what they get from it. My experience of bastards is that there is very little material benefit gained from being in their company, though you feel there might be, any minute. Or you get something for a while and then the polarity switches. It’s a huge con. Trump made the mechanism clear – in this, I think he is a timely figure.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2024 source ↗

Bruno Tonioli Italian choreographer

Meanness and lying.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 April 2023 source ↗

Antonio Banderas

I don’t like fake people, impostors.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2019 source ↗

David Chang

Unwillingness to change.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2019 source ↗

More from Helen Mirren

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Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Sister Alice Marie Quinn, who runs St. Vincent Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2010 source ↗

Question Which quality in your friends matters most to you? Relationships

Their ability to open a bottle of wine.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2010 source ↗

Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

Laziness and procrastination.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, September 2010 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

I remember thinking, when I was in my early 30s, that this is the best age to be, and I still believe your 30s are a wonderful time. But I think I am pretty happy now.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2008 source ↗

Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

To sit by a clear river on a warm day in early July with the smell of cut grass in the air.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 1 September 2010 source ↗

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