What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

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

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

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

Recorded Anna Friel said elsewhere, not written here
A barrister or a pop star.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 August 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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Andrew O'Hagan Scottish author
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗
Fay Ripley English actress, television presenter, cookbook author
Donny Osmond’s wife. Still do.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 November 2022 source ↗

More from Anna Friel

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Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains
I nearly died by burst ovarian cyst in 2001. I was doing the front cover of a magazine and someone said, “Can you not pull your tummy in?” It turned out that I had been carrying two litres of blood in my stomach. I was rushed to hospital the next morning and nearly died of septicaemia. They had to give me two blood transfusions. Had it been an hour later it would have been bye bye.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 August 2019 source ↗

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Fay Ripley, Dan Stevens, Patricia Hodge, Charlotte Church, Martin Kemp, Sue Perkins

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