Peter Sarsgaard: When were you most embarrassed?

The question

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A verbatim recurring question in The Guardian's Q&A series.

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

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

I was doing The Seagull with Carey Mulligan and Kristin Scott Thomas on Broadway. I walked out on stage and looked at Carey and said: “I’ve no idea what to say.” It was pretty deep into the run and it took me by surprise.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 February 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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Jared Harris

Where do I begin?

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 February 2025 source ↗

Liev Schreiber American actor

When I was 19 I worked at a gay bar while I was at drama school in London. One of the guys I worked with was Glaswegian and I learned the dialect from him. The acting teacher at the school said, “Liev, you’ve got the region but you’ve missed the character entirely” because I played Jimmy Boyle in a very camp Glaswegian accent.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 September 2024 source ↗

Johannes Radebe

When my trousers split on stage in Burn the Floor in Australia. I had always been warned to wear my flesh underwear and I did not that day.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 March 2026 source ↗

Lemn Sissay

Also my most triumphant: 2017 at the Royal Court. Julie Hesmondhalgh reads my psychologist’s report over two hours. Every excruciating intimate word of it. Extreme verbatim theatre. One night only.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 October 2023 source ↗

More from Peter Sarsgaard

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Question How would you sum yourself up in three words? Identity & self

Nurturing, musical, uncompromising.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 February 2024 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

When I was first acting, in college, a relative came and saw me in Hedda Gabler and she said: “Look in the mirror, you’re not an actor. An actor looks like Mel Gibson.”

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 February 2024 source ↗