I’ve had a few hairy scrapes as a scuba diver.
How close have you come to death?
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
In 2016, the moment my agent rang me to tell me I’d got the part of Hamlet for the RSC. While I was on the phone, I looked to my left and turned to the right, and a bus whizzed by and the wing mirror was so close to me that it knocked my hat off.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 November 2023 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →
Gemma Chan
British Chinese actress
In 2012 I stared into the eyes of someone who had just stabbed a man in the neck on the street. I was trying to help the victim; for a very long three or four seconds, I thought he was going to come for me next.
Joanne Froggatt
English actress
I was in a car crash when I was 16, and I have a little scar on my face from smashing the passenger window with my head. If the car had rolled, I would have been dead.
Clive Myrie
British journalist, newsreader, and presenter
Coming under attack while reporting in Iraq.
More from Paapa Essiedu
View profile →I find it difficult to sit still.
After losing my mum still managing to finish drama school, because that was really difficult. I lost her in the first year.
I was a happy kid. I had quite a small life: I grew up in Walthamstow and didn’t really leave east London. I didn’t go to the South Bank for the first time until I was 18 years old.
To find as many moments to laugh as possible.
I would really love to know my parents as an adult. I lost my dad when I was 14 and my mum when I was 20.
A really bad habit of eating sweets before I go to sleep.
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Also answered this
Bertie Carvel, Gemma Chan, Aidan Gillen, Emilia Fox, Cynthia Nixon, Orlando Bloom
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