SH
Now. During the period of Covid, I have had the opportunity to rethink and I’ve got a new gift of cherishing now.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 September 2020 source ↗
The question
What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
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Stephen Dillane
British actor
Playing football in the school playground at lunchtime.
EL James
British author
Belfast 1994, when my first son was born.
Patti Smith
Musician, poet and photographer
Tramping through the woods in South Jersey in 1957 with my dog Bambi.
Ian McEwan
British novelist and screenwriter
In my mid- to late-20s, in London, beginning to publish, living hand to mouth, having fun. Also now, when love and life and work have finally cohered.
More from Sofia Helin
View profile →Acting, when you don’t want to do it or you disagree with everything, is almost like having sex with someone you don’t like. I had one experience like that on stage, in a terrible version of The Cherry Orchard. I put on a wig, dark-coloured contacts and just hoped no one would recognise me.
When I had a bicycle accident when I was 24. I was on a bridge going down; the bicycle broke and I smashed to the ground, face first. I broke my jaw and my teeth, and had to have plastic surgery. It all took half a year and then, funnily enough, I got my first big job – a TV series – with what I thought of then as this big, ugly scar.
My vain side would like to be remembered as someone who did good for others in some way. But I would be happy if my children remembered me.
I spend most money on my garden.
Warm and bubbly.
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