Omid Djalili
British stand-up comedian and actor
I'd edit out all the wrong people I surrounded myself with socially and professionally whom I thought I had to tolerate.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Nothing. Tony Benn, one of my favourite politicians, said, “I don’t care where you’ve been, I care where you’re going.”
The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 December 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
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David Hasselhoff
American actor, singer, and television personality
My drinking habits.
I would become fitter younger. Because I would have been hotter younger!
Jennifer Hudson
American singer and actress
I wouldn’t change a thing. Every experience is a lesson learned.
More from Zack Polanski
View profile →I would say something earnest like stopping the far right, but the truth is nothing keeps me awake at night.
I wanted to be in the WWF – the wrestling one, not the wildlife one.
Catching Covid. I don’t think any of us know what we’re messing with still to this day.
Doomscrolling on my phone.
I get trolled on a daily basis so it probably involved my teeth, but that was until I learned to love my teeth.
Forest Green Rovers, my football team, getting relegated.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 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? 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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