Emily Mortimer
British actress
Not being able to sing.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
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What does love feel like?
Relationships
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Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Early in my career I got really close to being one of the kids in the Narnia movie. I remember being crushed.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 366 →
Greta Scacchi
Italian-born actress
Not getting to play more Shakespeare.
Suzi Quatro
American-British rock musician
Not being able to have more kids.
Tracey Ullman
British and American actress
Realising as I grew up that people don’t really know what they’re doing.
More from Olly Alexander
View profile →It’s the stuff about my appearance that sticks. I read I had a face like a crumpled napkin and teeth that could till a field.
Like something or someone is part of your DNA, the fabric of who you are.
I can be an overthinker and a vicious self-critic.
Jill Nalder. Lydia West played her character in It’s a Sin. She was on the wards with nurses caring for patients who were dying [of Aids] when lots of people wouldn’t go near them.
At the Mighty Hoopla festival, Kimberley and Nicola from Girls Aloud joined me on stage for a Girls Aloud song. I completely forgot the words.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Greta Scacchi, Ruth Jones, Hugh Dennis, Joanna Scanlan, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Gina McKee
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