Pretending I’m happy when I’m not.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 October 2024 source ↗
The question
When were you most embarrassed?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
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Others on this question
View all 122 →Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
Pauline McLynn
Irish character actress and author
Eight or nine years ago, I disgraced myself in the Japanese ambassador’s home in Dublin, at a celebration for my late mother-in-law’s book about living in Japan. Afterwards, when I had to apologise, she told me it was the worst night of her life and, because I was drunk enough not to remember the details, it will never not be the most embarrassing night of my life. People are filling in details even now – “Remember when you fell under the table during the first course?”
Falling flat on my face in Billy Elliot on Boxing Day when I was 14. I fell smack bang at the end of my number. I was mortified.
Ed Harris
American actor and director
Modelling tuxedos at the Oklahoma State Fair in 1971.
More from Marina Abramović
View profile →To myself. I am my harshest critic.
Long hair, big nose, large ass.
A cashmere shawl.
That performance art has become a part of mainstream art.
Twenty-one grams of energy goes into the universe.
To be eaten by a shark.
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