The question
What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
On Angela's Ashes, Alan Parker said to me, 'You've got the Bafta, just get in the door.' I was walking along the street to go into a shop and he saw me milking it a bit. It was a really good piece of advice.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2008 source ↗
“You don’t stand a chance of succeeding as a writer in this country. The demographics are against you.” They were wrong. The only demographic that counts is the human heart.
I was opening in a play in my 20s, and my agent came on opening night, brought flowers, took me out to dinner and then told me she was no longer going to be representing me.
I stopped drinking 18 or 19 years ago, and in an argument someone who will remain nameless said: “Oh just go and have a drink.” It was nasty.
“Let’s face it, you’re not Ingrid Bergman.” I was 19 and he was a potential boyfriend. My only thought at the time was: “I’m not?”
Something by Nick Drake.
If war stopped.
The worst was as a butcher, aged 17.
To stand up tall and aim for what you want.
I was on a plane in India and I thought it was going to crash. It was an old, rickety thing. It was pre-children - I wouldn't do it now.
Becoming an actor at all, considering my background.
Rosie Jones, Rita Wilson, Olly Alexander, Felicity Jones, Craig Charles, Paapa Essiedu
Search the directory for somebody in particular.