Imogen Poots: 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 once asked a young woman if she had ever heard of the musician Laura Marling, insinuating I knew Laura Marling, to which she replied: “I am Laura Marling.”

The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 March 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

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John Simm English musician and actor

Going to pieces while meeting John Squire, the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses, backstage after a gig. I completely lost the ability to speak. I told him I had the same guitars as he’d just used on stage, and when he asked me which ones, the words completely went out of my head and there was a huge pause, and then his wife tapped his shoulder and he wandered off.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗

Kerry Godliman

Farting in front of Colin Firth.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2023 source ↗

Chris McCausland

When I was losing my sight, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I went into an undertaker’s thinking it was a barber’s. I asked the undertaker whether he had many waiting.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗

Alex Hassell

On one of my first jobs, Cold Mountain, I got a wasp in my ear in front of Jude Law. He couldn’t see the wasp so just saw me freak out.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 May 2026 source ↗