The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?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.
In African families, you can be one of three things: a doctor, a lawyer or a failure. I wanted to be an Egyptologist, but things worked out in the end.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2022 source ↗
The prime minister.
A botanist or a florist.
A ballet dancer, and for a while I wanted to teach children with Down’s syndrome.
A nurse, because my grandmother was a midwife. I was named after her but never got to meet her.
A shoot with a showbusiness icon who I’d loved all my life and shall remain nameless. She walked into the room and immediately said she hated everything. Things went downhill from there. Rough day.
When my trousers nearly fell down at Buckingham Palace. I was there to collect my OBE, and the suspenders for the beautiful Alexander McQueen suit I’d had made for the occasion went missing. Naomi Campbell was with me and we had a good laugh about it.
The ability to teleport. I’d be unstoppable.Would you rather have more sex, money or fame? More than those, I’d like more time.
When I get to the restaurant and don’t see any hot sauce on the table.
That there is no ideal life. Disappointments sit around every corner, so enjoy the here and now.
Impatience. Though sometimes it helps!
Felicity Jones, Chris Bryant, Harriet Walter, Jared Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Hayley Atwell
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