My kids navigating the world as it is today – and daddy longlegs.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Every actor has the same fear – ie, you’re never going to work again.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 August 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 256 →
Olivia de Havilland
Film actress; twice winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress
The loss of physical, financial, and psychological independence.
Totalitarianism in Europe.
Food in a sink drain.
More from Nigel Havers
View profile →My first wife, because I left her.
Not playing James Bond.
I was about six years old in a market square in Italy and my dad said, “Oh, those shorts would look perfect on you.” So he whipped my trousers off and I hadn’t got any knickers on.
I cry all the time in front of the telly. I was doing Gogglebox with Julian Clary recently and I cried watching The Piano.
That’s the 64-million-dollar question.
Nothing at all.
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 243 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 195 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 158 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 111 answers
- What are you most proud of? 103 answers
Also answered this
Lena Dunham, John Simm, Kerry Godliman, Bobbi Brown, Trevor Noah, Diahann Carroll
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject