Mel Brooks: What do you fear most?

The question

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Mel Brooks

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

A Broadway theater filled with nothing but critics.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2021 source ↗

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Sophia Loren

To overcook that plate of fettuccine.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2021 source ↗

Monica Dolan

Being lost and no one wanting to find me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 January 2024 source ↗

Ally McCoist

Not having the people I love around me.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 November 2024 source ↗

Scott Mills English radio DJ and television presenter

Heights. For Children in Need, I had to abseil off the Orbit in the Olympic Park. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve done.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 October 2022 source ↗

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Question What does happiness look like for you when life is going well? Identity & self

Being in a Broadway theater full of people laughing their heads off at one of my shows.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 14 December 2021 source ↗

Question Which trait in yourself do you like least? Identity & self

Being too damned self-absorbed.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2021 source ↗

Question Which quality in your friends matters most to you? Relationships

Taking daily showers and always being there when I need them.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 14 December 2021 source ↗

Question What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? Time & hindsight

Probably during my childhood growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2021 source ↗

Question Who alive today do you admire most, and what draws you to them? Values & belief

Probably me, but I don’t think I’m supposed to say that!

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2021 source ↗

Question What trait do you most dislike in other people? Values & belief

Never picking up the check.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, December 2021 source ↗

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