Shirley MacLaine: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

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

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

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

Recorded Shirley MacLaine said elsewhere, not written here

At three, I knew I was too tall to be a ballerina, so that wasn’t going to happen.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

Malcolm Gladwell Staff writer at The New Yorker; author of The Tipping Point and Outliers

I didn’t want to be anything because I don’t look ahead. Even as a kid I thought it was pointless.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 April 2021 source ↗

The Doctor in Doctor Who. I still do.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2025 source ↗

Jim Kerr Scottish singer and songwriter

In the Beatles.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 October 2022 source ↗

Jo Nesbø Norwegian writer and musician

I wanted to play for Tottenham.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗

To know whether democracy really will work in the future.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

The Nutcracker Suite pas de deux.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

The reviews of my latest film.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

Watching my two baby dogs play. They are rat terriers, rescue dogs.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 July 2017 source ↗

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