The question
When were you most embarrassed?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.
During the technical rehearsal of Aspects of Love in 1989. They told me it would be discreetly lit because I was paranoid about being in just my pants. I walked on and every spotlight in the building followed me round the stage.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 May 2023 source ↗
Going on stage and saying, “Good evening Lyon!” I was in Marseille.
I was in the musical Elvis, and after a costume change I went below stage to be raised up on a platform. As I was raised up, I blanked and couldn’t remember the first line of the song King Creole. I mumbled the first few lines and hoped nobody would notice.
Appearing on US breakfast radio. I heard the DJ say that after the news we would hear from the author Lincoln Child. I had to choose between making a guy with a mixed-up PR release look like an idiot or pretending to be Lincoln. I pretended.
On one of my first jobs, Cold Mountain, I got a wasp in my ear in front of Jude Law. He couldn’t see the wasp so just saw me freak out.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his trajectory from performer to leading his country and then stepping up in such a magnificent way is extraordinary.
“Unfortunately, Michael, I don’t think you’re ever going to work in the acting profession until you’re about 40, and then it’ll only be in minor character roles.” Drama teacher at Guildford School of Acting.
Handing out leaflets for a European coach trip wearing just lederhosen, in February and March in Surrey. It was freezing, and I got fired.
My first summer working, in 1984. I’d come out of drama school, I’d landed a job that got me an Equity card doing Godspell in Aberystwyth – and it was just unmitigated joy.
My dogs. They didn’t cost that much to buy, but I’ve been paying for them since. We’ve two Tibetan terriers, Danny and Wilbur.
The best of times, the worst of times.
Sofia Coppola, Ed Harris, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Liev Schreiber, Jack Whitehall, Rosie Jones
Search the directory for somebody in particular.