Bruno Tonioli
Italian choreographer
Growing up as a gay boy in a small town, you get used to people saying bad things pretty quickly.
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
One time an engineer said, “I always forget your frequency is at the same level as a crying baby.” I think he was on to something, because I have been told to shush many times over the years.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 November 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →Glenda Jackson said I was an amateur during rehearsal for The White Devil at the Old Vic. I called her a cow, but that was inadequate.
Paapa Essiedu
British actor
Called me the N-word.
In an audition at the Royal Court, this man called out, “Were you trained?”
More from Nuala McGovern
View profile →In the Pet Shop Boys song Being Boring they’ve a great line that says “I never dreamed that I would get to be the creature that I always meant to be”. And I feel I am, so that’s great.
Three times when I lived in New York, I missed seeing David Bowie in real life by moments.
Curious, confident, cheerful.
Too high an expectation of others and myself.
Losing my husband. We are properly codependent.
Running out of time.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 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? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
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Meghann Fahy, Marcus Mumford, Fiona Allen, Peter Sarsgaard, Bryn Terfel, Hamza Yassin
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