if this were private listen we'd have a
whole other
skew of answers to those questions
but
[Music]
dan yes you are about to take vanity
fair's produced questionnaire
you will be asked 35 questions in rapid
succession in order to reveal your true
nature
oh boy once a question has been read out
you will have five seconds to answer
before we move on
once we have completed all 35 questions
you will have a chance to reflect on and
even correct your answers
i am as ready as i can be i think
what is your idea of perfect happiness a
sunny afternoon in tokyo with some of my
closest friends
what is your greatest fear illness
what is a trait that you most deplore in
yourself
thinking i have an answer to everything
what is the trait you most deplore in
others bigotry
which living person do you most admire
oprah
what is your greatest extravagance
glasses and sunglasses
i have more than i'd like to share with
you here today
what is your current state of mind
hopefully
what do you consider the most overrated
virtue
obedience on what occasion do you lie
um when the truth would hurt more and
the lie wouldn't hurt
what do you dislike most about your
appearance i have a very lazy eye
which living person do you most despise
i don't want to give him press
what is the quality you most like in a
man humility
what is the quality you most like in a
woman i like them all
which words or phrases do you most
overuse
the thing is what or
who is the greatest love of your life i
don't think i've met him yet so i'm
gonna say my dog
redmond when and where were you happiest
italy two summers ago with some friends
long before
any of this happened
which talent would you most like to have
i would love to be a very
very good singer if you could change one
thing about yourself what would it be
[Music]
to let things go more easily
what do you consider your greatest
achievement
oh uh probably telling
stories that might have affected a
positive change in someone's life
if you were to die and come back as a
person or a thing what would it be
i really like my life so the concept of
reincarnation is kind of sad to me
where would you most like to live london
england
what is your most treasured possession
i want to say my dog but he's not a
possession it's
he's more just like a family member that
i found what do you regard as the lowest
depth of misery
self-obsession
is your favorite occupation i quite
like juggling acting and writing
although ask me when i'm working and
that answer might be different
what is your most marked characteristic
uh sarcasm
what do you most value in your friends a
strong sense of character
who are your favorite writers
yikes at the moment ann
carson and michaela cole
who is your hero of fiction mary poppins
which historical figure do you most
identify with
whoever hasn't been cancelled yet
who are your heroes in real life uh
great teachers what are your favorite
names
eugene deborah sarah
and redmond what is it that you most
dislike
generally speaking uh arrogance
what is your greatest regret
uh not
respecting myself enough in my teens
how would you like to die on a beach
mid-laugh with some friends
and finally what is your motto
uh there is no such thing as this is how
it's done
that concludes the questionnaire okay
relatively painless
so dan how was that experience
uh it was okay it was okay i crack under
pressure usually
so it was relatively smooth considering
other high pressure situations i've
cracked under were there questions that
you lied about
no no
the problem is between my friends and my
family i'd be held accountable for each
and every answer to those questions
likely publicly so i just don't think
i'd be able to get away with
uh lying in this if this were private
listen we'd have a whole other
skew of answers to those questions
but can you explain why you answered
oprah to
which living person do you most admire i
mean she has played such a formative
role
in my life she was
someone who has like greatly informed my
desire to be of service to people to try
and do good in the world
she has inspired a sense of charity
um and generosity in me um from a very
young age
and i just think that she is someone who
has
made a mark on the world in such a
positive way you answered
thinking i have an answer to everything
when i asked what trait you most deplore
in yourself
in what occasions has that gone awry a
lot of the time it's like
unwanted advice where i just can't help
myself from
from offering uh solutions or
opinions on things that ultimately were
never asked of me
but i'm a leo so i i mean i don't want
to default
to a star sign because that's like a
really weak excuse but at the same time
for people who are leos you realize that
you are
essentially trapped by a star sign
whether you want to admit it or not and
i'm not really even into star signs
so i don't really know what that means
but uh
i do know that i that i take a lot of
the boxes
uh of my horoscope why do you think
obedience is the most overrated virtue
um
i think i've learned even in this short
time in entertainment
that a lot of the current setup and you
know the con
the current sort of constructs of how
this industry is
has been built and sustained over the
years is built on the simple concept of
just
people doing what they're told and
that's not to say that doing what you're
told is a bad thing
at times but i do think that sometimes
in order to make great change
you have to break the rules or at least
ask questions that push back on the
rules
and i think that's the only time that
you you will
change them for the better hopefully can
you explain the context behind
your greatest regret not respecting
myself
enough in my teens yeah i mean i think i
was a really introverted kid
i really didn't think that highly of
myself
and i think you look back at your teens
and you you see missed opportunities
would i have changed anything probably
not because i feel like
everything that happened to me led to
who i am today but at the same time i do
feel like
you know looking back you think geez you
were so much better than you thought you
were
if i were to ever meet my younger self
in a strange
sci-fi scenario that's what i would say
why is
london england the place you most like
to live i lived there for a little bit
um in my early 20s and i loved it and
i go on a lot of dates there to be
perfectly honest
me and los angeles in the dating
scenario are just not the greatest fit
why is humility the quality you most
like in a man
maybe it's because i live in la and it's
really hard to find that
in men in la people are very
very concerned about themselves in los
angeles you know i just think it's such
an attractive
quality to um be sure of yourself
and confident but not have it take over
who you are or define who you are why is
mary poppins
your hero of fiction um she's my fondest
and earliest childhood memory of a
fictional character
and i've always admired her strength of
will her stoicism her
humor and there was just this kind of
strong
warmth to that character um
that i've always loved and i once
made the big mistake of of telling my
my nana that i wished julie andrews was
my grandmother
and it didn't go over uh very well and
now i just
miss my nana a lot so um i've kind of
equated the two of them
how'd she respond to that i think she
raised an eyebrow
and said i'm standing right here why are
anne carson and michaela cole your
favorite writers
i have so many favorite writers that i
think you can only go on like the people
that are taking up space in your mind
right now
and i just reread autobiography of red
which is my favorite work of
fiction um which is a long-form poem
that ann carson wrote many
years ago that always sort of brings me
great inspiration and and
joy when it comes to you know
contemporary writers
i thought what michaela cole did with i
may destroy you was absolutely
um game-changing and uh revolutionary
and inspiring and heartbreaking and
necessary so they seemed like two kind
of important
voices that are floating around in my
head you said
that the talent you would most like to
have is being a very
very good singer can you share what your
go-to audition song would be
i don't sing that often because i don't
have a very remarkable voice
you know in my mind like a really really
good singer is like i would love to s
you know to show up to a holiday party
and sing
by a piano like adele and have everyone
run
into the room and just have their breath
taken away by the vocal stylings that i
was
surprising people with not the case
in real life but probably a mariah carey
son
i would probably sing a mariah carey
song let's talk about your greatest
extravagance
glasses and sunglasses i've been
collecting glasses i think since i was
in
high school so you know they're a form
of expression i think when you can't
see quite literally without them um
i've always felt like if they're if i'm
stuck with these glasses
i'm gonna have as many as i possibly can
to sort of swap out with every mood and
look if you will so you answered
i really like my life so the concept of
reincarnation is kind of sad to me
why for me i think there's a lot of
people that have a lot of hope attached
to reincarnation i think it's a very
optimistic thing for people who believe
that there's something
outside of this i think as someone who
has worked really hard
to find a life for themselves and build
a life for themselves and take up space
on the planet coming from a place where
i felt like i never was going to take up
space on the planet and i never was
going to have a voice that i
loved or i or other people would love i
think when you
when you spend the time to really build
a happy
and joyful and successful life for
yourself
um the thought of coming back is like
a toad um just doesn't doesn't do
it for me so i don't know i'm focusing
on this life right now
and whatever happens after it i will
leave up to the stars i suppose
and by stars i mean celebrities i'll
just let a celebrity decide what i come
back as
do you think these questions have
revealed your true nature
i think these questions hopefully have
guided
the viewer down a path toward my
my true nature i hope we've sort of held
hands for a part of that journey