The question
Which moment embarrassed you most?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Going on stage and saying, “Good evening Lyon!” I was in Marseille.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 May 2024 source ↗
Being an actor is inherently embarrassing. You have to embrace it.
Years ago in a safari park in South Africa, and getting all dressed up for dinner. Walking across the lawn, I didn’t realise there was a swimming pool that hadn’t been lit and walked straight into the shallow end fully clothed. It still haunts me. I remember trying to get out as if no one would notice.
Fainting as a chorister in Winchester Cathedral in the middle of a service.
Years ago, I was trying to get with one of the big agencies and I cobbled together a VHS tape of me in adverts and sobbing in The Bill, and took it United Agents for the attention of Dallas Smith. A week later I went back and said, “Has she looked at the tape?” And they were, like, “Dallas is a he, no he hasn’t and he doesn’t want to,” and handed it back to me.
When I was little, a couple of rapes took place in Glasgow. I remember my mum saying to walk in the middle of the pavement, and to this day I am very conscious of where I am.
Not being in pain – I have back problems and had shoulder surgery just before Christmas and there isn’t a day that goes by when I am not in pain.
As a great songwriter.
Schemes. I hate schemers.
Somebody wrote that my voice was more numbing than novocaine.
Turning on the news.
Mark Bonnar, Ciarán Hinds, Nigel Havers, Russell Mael, Kelly Hoppen, Indira Varma
Search the directory for somebody in particular.