Brooke Shields: 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.

Brooke Shields

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Drowning. The feeling of not being able to take a breath. I’m sure my therapist would have something to say about the deep psychological reasons for it.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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Stanley Tucci

Losing one of my children, as there is no greater loss.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2024 source ↗

Michael Flatley American step dancer

On my deathbed thinking I wish I would have done something that I didn’t do.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 August 2024 source ↗

John Lithgow

Climate change, duh.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, October 2024 source ↗

Allison Janney

That I’ll become a recluse with too many dogs.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2019 source ↗

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

On a beach, watching my girls do cartwheels, with a Goombay Smash with a floater on top.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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

Gloria Steinem.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, February 2025 source ↗

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

Humor. Laughing with my girlfriends is one of my great joys.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

Question If you could alter one thing about yourself, what would it be? Identity & self

I would erase my fear of dying, but I suppose that would be erasing some of my human condition.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

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

Watching my girls laugh together. It is more short-lived than I’d like, but it does happen!

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 18 February 2025 source ↗

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