The question
What do you fear most?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.
I’m terrified of time. The people I love are getting older and time seems to be going faster and faster. It’s scary. I’d like it to slow down, please.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 May 2024 source ↗
Dying when my children are still young. I know how much it hurt me. I was 30 when my mum died and 39 when my dad died, and even then, that was too young.
I’m not fond of snakes.
Insanity. I am on a recovery programme – clean from drugs and drink for many years – and if I stopped doing all that stuff I’d go crazy pretty quick and pick up drugs again, because I was a real fucking addict.
I’ve always been frightened of the dark. I sometimes wonder whether it stems from being away filming from the age of five. I can remember being devastatingly homesick and having a little nightlight I used to look at to reassure myself things were all right.
Narcissism. And people coughing on me in public.
“You were amazing in Game of Thrones.” I say it’s the worst thing – it’s also the best!
Losing out on a role, any role. I get so invested. I can take rejection, but only when useful feedback is given.
Endless acting jobs.
A few of my exes.
A horse-riding accident when I was about 15.
Charlotte Rampling, Matthew Modine, John Simm, Ardal O'Hanlon, Cybill Shepherd, Romesh Ranganathan
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