Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 April 2022 source ↗
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.
Preparing for Sound Of Metal. Feeling challenged and overwhelmed and lost in something is very fulfilling.
Eating Marmite on toast just after the birth of my daughter in 2004.
Swimming in the North Sea at midnight, surrounded by phosphorescence.
Talking in cliches. We have the most economic, resonant and versatile language in the world, yet so many people use it in a dull and boring way.
The only drink I really, really like is champagne.
The film of Restoration. A beautiful cast. An award-winning designer. A massive budget. A dog’s dinner.
A cream suit from Chanel that cost almost as much as a small car.
We live in a fearful age: Brexit, Covid, global warming, cancel culture, war in Ukraine. Add in pancreatic cancer and you find me in an advanced and complex state of anxiety.
Meryl Streep. For all her truthful and perfected offerings that have taken me to an “elsewhere”, in which my mind could feel both soothed and stimulated.
Judith Kerr, Shirley MacLaine, Gok Wan, Sandi Toksvig, David Hare, George Saunders
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