Cleaning around the feet of John Malkovich with industrial carpet cleaner while he was trying to learn lines in the foyer of a theatre.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 May 2017 source ↗
The question
What is the worst job you have ever had?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
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Others on this question
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Bruno Tonioli
Italian choreographer
I had to choreograph dancing cows for a commercial. I had to superimpose footage of dancing legs – some were mine – on to the cow. It was bonkers.
Tom Allen
British comedian
I once had to sit on a sleigh and pretend to be Bing Crosby for a corporate party. I had to mime to White Christmas over and over again.
Shane MacGowan
Irish singer-songwriter
Helping to slaughter farmyard animals as a kid; watching while my aunties cut them up to get their guts out and seeing eggs floating around in the hens. That made me become a vegetarian.
Leafleting for a window company when I was 12. I remember putting them through letterboxes thinking: I’m going to sell drugs, because this is rubbish.
More from Aidan Gillen
View profile →Foxes making love: it’s a very unsettling sound.
The floral waistcoat and shocking-pink shirt combo I wore on my 21st.
Pyramid Song, by Radiohead, live.
Last year, driving in California, I found myself on the wrong side of the road. I was 30 seconds away from hitting two cars coming the other way.
A stuntman. Evel Knievel was an icon.
Teachers at my school, for being such a smartarse.
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- How much rewriting or revision do you typically do? 46 answers
- What part of your job would surprise outsiders because it takes up so much of your time? 41 answers
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