Hugh Grant: What do you believe happens when we die?

The question

What do you believe happens when we die?

Originally asked

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

A recurring late-stage question in The Guardian Q&A, with materially different answers on publisher-hosted pages.

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

Hugh Grant

Actor

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

Oh, man. Well, I hope when we die, it’s the same as before we were born. No one’s really frightened of that enormous, infinite blackness before we were born. No one sits there thinking, “Oh, God, how awful. I was nothing.” So I don’t really see why we should be frightened of that after we die, as long as it is black. I really don’t want to be up there on a cloud playing a harp, meeting some of the people I’ve hated in my life. I can’t imagine a greater nightmare. That would be hell, in fact.

The Talks, 7 May 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Miriam Margolyes

Nothing at all.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 July 2025 source ↗

Su Pollard

We drift off to a beautiful place where we live a better, fuller life than what we’ve left.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 August 2025 source ↗

Neil Gaiman Author of fiction, comics and screenplays

I like the idea of being atoms that other people can breathe in, and fabulous worm food.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 October 2023 source ↗

Justin Hawkins

Massive DMT release, your perception of time dilates, you realise you can fly, then it all goes black, and you start again, only this time … you’re a slug.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗