Jessica Brown Findlay: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

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 Jessica Brown Findlay said elsewhere, not written here

A ballet dancer. I danced from age two to 19. Giving up was not a choice; I had complications in an ankle operation.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Angela Hartnett English chef

Anything and everything. I watched the Olympics and wanted to be an 800m runner. If I watched Inspector Morse, I wanted to be a pathologist.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 August 2022 source ↗

Belinda Carlisle American singer

A travel agent, so I could see the world.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 March 2023 source ↗

Zoe Ball British TV and radio personality

I only ever wanted to be Barbra Streisand. I probably still do.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 December 2020 source ↗

James Blunt Singer, songwriter and musician

A lawyer. I did work experience and was sent to the public gallery at the high court. The man in the dock was a 50-year-old accused of buggering a cat on the Metropolitan line. I decided to become a musician instead.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 November 2021 source ↗

More from Jessica Brown Findlay

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Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

My nan. She lost her husband at the end of 2019 and over the past year she’s been in isolation, but every single week when we speak, she’s full of hope.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 March 2021 source ↗