How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Best known for her role as Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton, Golda Rosheuvel is an acclaimed actor of stage and screen. Her career spans powerful theatrical roles including Romeo and Juliet, Jesus Christ Superstar and a groundbreaking lesbian interpretation of Othello. She also stars in the spin-off series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

In this conversation, Golda speaks movingly about her childhood and family: how her mother, a white social worker, met her father, a Guyanese Anglican priest, by chance at a choir rehearsal in Jamaica. She reflects on discovering she was dyslexic, navigating rejection, experiencing racism, struggling with motivation - and even failing an early audition for Bridgerton. Plus: why representation is so important.

✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Introduction

04:12 Impact of Representation and Public Recognition

08:39 Challenges with Dyslexia

21:15 Navigating Identity and Belonging

28:10 Professional Challenges and Identity

29:08 Casting and Industry Feedback

29:47 Facing Rejection and Overcoming Setbacks

30:32 Failed Auditions and Lessons Learned

31:45 Challenges of Racial Identity in Theatre

34:04 Progress in Representation and Diversity

35:35 Reflecting on Parental Influence

38:58 Navigating Personal and Professional Identity

40:36 Struggles with Exercise and Motivation

47:54 Final Thoughts and Legacy

💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

‘I’m not half anything. I’m a whole... I found who I want to be.

‘I don't see [dyslexia] as a failure because it was never told to me that it was a failure... It was, “you see the world differently”. This is really exciting.’

‘Representation is important. We wanna see people who look like us, who we can relate to.’

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Part one of Bridgerton season four premieres on 29th January on Netflix; part two begins streaming on 26th February

Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/

📚 WANT MORE?

Gillian Anderson - on her failure to eat well or exercise and why she never wants to do what people tell her swap.fm/l/7NyZMzkfVOpGyDtlB6k0

Letitia Wright - on bullying, rejection, self-doubt, anxiety and depression. Plus how faith and friendship helped her turn those struggles into strength and purpose swap.fm/l/orHGF9VMU6s1FOH3bupc

💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Elizabeth and Golda answer listener questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fame isn’t always limousines, five star hotels, champagne and private jets. I find this topic totally fascinating and these two past How to Fail guests give us a glimpse behind the curtain as to what becoming famous at a young age really means.

Shania Twain takes us back to her childhood, singing late nights in smoke-filled bars, growing up far too fast and without real control over her own life. She speaks movingly about the emotional cost of starting so young.

Charlotte Church reflects on how early fame shaped - and at times restricted – her creative freedom, the doors that were closed to her by the industry and the advice she would give her younger self now.

Listen to Shania’s full episode of How to Fail here: https://play.megaphone.fm/cgztqicuqzic6lu1d75lka

Listen to Charlotte’s full episode of How to Fail here: swap.fm/l/RZeSUcGaFgix3SsYMaBp

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/

Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @howtofailpod @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod @elizabday

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martin Freeman is one of the most sought-after actors of his generation. Whether it’s Tim in The Office, John - the mild-mannered porn actor in Love Actually, Watson in Sherlock, Bilbo in The Hobbit, the stressed parent in Breeders, the Liverpudlian cop with personal problems in The Responder and Everett K. Ross in Marvel Cinematic Universe smash hits Captain America and Black Panther - Freeman is a star, and to date has won two Emmys and a BAFTA.

In this episode, Martin reflects on his childhood as the youngest of five (comparatively modest when you consider his mother was one of fourteen!) as well as the lasting impact of losing his father at ten years old. We talk about parenting, the people who’ve inspired him (hello, Michael Caine), the future of AI from a technophobe’s perspective, his unease with fame and the quieter failures that sit behind public success. Plus: strap yourself in for much hilarity. I don’t think I can remember a guest who made me laugh QUITE this much.

Martin can next be seen as the determined Superintendent Battle in Netflix’s new Agatha Christie adaptation, Seven Dials.

✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Introduction

02:22 Dealing with Fame and Anxiety

05:12 The Everyman Label

07:35 Exploring Anger and Authenticity

16:28 Academic Struggles and Early Acting

20:33 Personal Reflections and Family

28:08 Comparing to Heroes

32:15 The Office and Sherlock

40:29 Technology Struggles

44:20 AI Concerns

47:47 Meeting Michael Caine

💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

You should say no to your kids. You should let them know that life's gonna kick 'em in the ass... that is a manifestation of love for me.

There is a great deal of value in making a child bored... How else are you going to paint, or make up a story or learn a trade or learn a skill if you are literally mouth agape looking at a f***ing screen?

The people who say it [success] doesn't solve your problems are obviously right... But love is a good start to it - it does more than anything else.

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Seven Dials is available to watch now on Netflix.

Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/

📚 WANT MORE?

Stephen Merchant - on feeling like an outsider, learning to live with rejection and being banned from High And Mighty. swap.fm/l/Lta5mlFbVnPHyFb8R1n2

Adeel Akhtar - the actor’s actor on the humbling impact of parenthood, cultural expectations and learning to let go of ego in order to grow swap.fm/l/eWxKBXUJZAAkfovquzwi

💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Elizabeth and Martin answer listener questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Panic attacks are wide-spread in today’s society, and yet remain something we rarely talk about openly. So it’s vital that we normalise an experience so many of us share - because talking about it is often the first step towards understanding, accepting and working through it.

Jamie Laing and Fearne Cotton both came on How to Fail back in 2019 and spoke so honestly about their own experiences. Jamie reflected on the early days of Made in Chelsea, when he experienced panic attacks for a full year. Fearne shares how she still experiences panic attacks today and the stigma that can surround them.

Hopefully this conversation feels reassuring, validating and helps to normalise a topic that has remained unnecessarily taboo for far too long.

Listen to Jamie’s full episode of How to Fail here: swap.fm/l/QXKrzzpg5hULgBpXWMBY

Listen to Fearne’s full episode of How to Fail here: swap.fm/l/UT0WhcQT43TY0hDtgnFW

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/

Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @howtofailpod @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod @elizabday

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You’ll know Marisa Abela from HBO’s critically acclaimed hit Industry, where her portrayal of Yasmin - a brilliant, volatile young woman with ambition to burn, earned her a BAFTA. She also starred as Amy Winehouse in Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black and now returns for the hotly anticipated fourth season of Industry.

In this conversation, Marisa spills the beans on her first audition for Industry, why her acting is inspired by The Real Housewives (yes, really) and what we can expect from the new season. We also reflect on her troubled teenage years - and how she was ‘a terror’ to live with, as well as her shock diagnosis with thyroid cancer at the age of 23. Through the subsequent intensive surgery and recovery process, Marisa learned the importance of women advocating for themselves and their own bodies in a culture where women’s health is often overlooked and under-researched.

Still just 29, Marisa is remarkably self-aware and wise beyond her years. As an Industry superfan myself, I adored chatting to her and I hope you love the episode too. If you do, please rate, review and hit the follow button!

✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Intro

03:15 Drama School and Early Failures

04:23 Navigating Pressure

07:33 Teenage Struggles

27:13 Health Crisis in 2020

29:30 Diagnosis

30:30 Surgery and Recovery During the Pandemic

32:01 The Impact on Body Image

35:36 Advocating for Women's Health

38:45 Support and Love

40:32 Getting Married!

💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

At a certain point, the regret of not doing a thing is worse than the fear of rejection.

I really do believe that your body has a way of telling you that something's actually wrong and we should listen to it.

All of the good things and all of the bad things are what make you, you - and without all of the bad things, I wouldn’t be who I am

🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

Industry airs on BBC One on 12 January and will be on iPlayer. In the US it airs on HBO on 11 January.

Join the How To Fail community: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: https://theelizabethday.substack.com/

📚 WANT MORE?

Jessie Ware - reflects on motherhood, ambition and how losing control ultimately taught her to redefine success swap.fm/l/8cUuwGs4vc7tAXiPcDab

Letitia Wright - on bullying, rejection and the power of faith on her journey from self-doubt to global success swap.fm/l/orHGF9VMU6s1FOH3bupc

Ella Purnell - on growing up in the industry, perfectionism and anxiety. Plus: learning to let go of self-criticism in order to survive and thrive swap.fm/l/8w1oCcVmNutX8qv83MbN

💌 LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

👋 Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Elizabeth and Marisa answer live audience questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices