An actor. Then I grew out of that and became one by default. Or sort of one: “Not really an actor”, said Michael Billington.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2017 source ↗
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.
An actor. Then I grew out of that and became one by default. Or sort of one: “Not really an actor”, said Michael Billington.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 December 2017 source ↗
Jobs that I saw on television, until I realised they were all played by actors – then I wanted to be an actor.
I wanted to be like my dad, who was an academic, because he had an office packed full of books, always had loud music on, and seemed to get to do what he wanted.
I wanted to be a doctor, like my father.
I wanted to be in the circus.
Adolescent love feels like exquisite self-indulgence. Long-term love feels like a warm bath that needs a trickle of extra hot water every now and then.
The next morning. It rarely turns out as bad as I think it’s going to be.
As a charming, helpful, solicitous, generous, loving, carefree and constantly funny companion, lover and father. Some hope of that.
I’ll be at my happiest today, and probably my gloomiest at some point today, too.
No songs, please. Don’t make a fuss.
Sorry, I’m British and middle class, so I’ve already apologised to virtually everybody I have ever met.
Jenna Coleman, Brendan Gleeson, Hayley Atwell, Harriet Walter, Felicity Jones, Jessica Brown Findlay
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