Whenever it was, I didn't realise it fully.
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Vanity Fair, 7 February 2005 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 585 →The summer of 1997. My husband, who is an American, gave up everything to come and live with me in Edinburgh when we were students, and we were so skint but we had so much fun.
Childhood, up until the age of seven, when my sister died.
The first time I saw each of my four children’s faces.
More from Olivia de Havilland
View profile →Doing cryptic crosswords or, equally, reading tales of mystery and imagination.
The deception and exploitation of the naïve and defenseless.
The loss of physical, financial, and psychological independence.
Thrust into my profession without any training whatsoever, I had to just flounder and just find my way. It was an agonizing experience. It’s like jumping off a diving board in the Olympic contest without knowing how to swim or dive, and I just had to find my way. So one day, I said to Jimmy Cagney, “Jimmy, what is acting?” and he said, “I don’t know.” He said, “All I can tell you is whatever you say, mean it,” and I thought that marvelous counsel.
Nelson Mandela.
Champagne.
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