Sofia Helin: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

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

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

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

Recorded Sofia Helin said elsewhere, not written here

When I had a bicycle accident when I was 24. I was on a bridge going down; the bicycle broke and I smashed to the ground, face first. I broke my jaw and my teeth, and had to have plastic surgery. It all took half a year and then, funnily enough, I got my first big job – a TV series – with what I thought of then as this big, ugly scar.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Joseph Fiennes English actor

Climbing in Tibet, surfing in Australia and a moment ago by a courgette cutter as I dithered over one of these questions.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 October 2008 source ↗

Tom Ellis Welsh actor

Every time I let my wife drive.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 September 2021 source ↗

Cory Taylor Novelist and screenwriter

How many times I could have died before now, and in how many different ways. And yet I came close only once: a speeding sedan ran a red light, hit three other vehicles, and jack-knifed into my rear wheel split second after I’d stepped out of my parked car. A bystander described the scene to me later. “You were a millimetre away from losing your legs,” he said.

Recorded Edited extract from Dying: A Memoir, Text Publishing, The Guardian, 17 May 2016 source ↗

Pauline Black

I fell asleep in a room that had an oil heater and it filled with carbon monoxide and, if it hadn’t been for my husband, Terry, I would have died.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 April 2025 source ↗

More from Sofia Helin

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Question When were you happiest? Time & hindsight

Now. During the period of Covid, I have had the opportunity to rethink and I’ve got a new gift of cherishing now.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗

Question What is the worst job you have done? Craft & work

Acting, when you don’t want to do it or you disagree with everything, is almost like having sex with someone you don’t like. I had one experience like that on stage, in a terrible version of The Cherry Orchard. I put on a wig, dark-coloured contacts and just hoped no one would recognise me.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗