CARLOS ACOSTA

What would you eat for your last supper? I’d share a traditional Cuban meal of black beans with rice, pork crackling and tostados with my daughter Aila and wife Charlotte. What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? ‘Follow your instinct and commit as many mistakes as you can. It will only make you wiser.’ When have you felt at your sexiest? When I am dancing a role that has an exotic costume, like the white turban and white jacket I wore in La Bayadère. The costume just suited my physique and I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘Wow!’ What’s the funniest thing you’ve read about yourself? There was a rumour back in Havana that I was dating Naomi Campbell. At that time I hadn’t even met her but even my ballet teacher congratulated me on the news. It was such nonsense. Is there a book that changed the way you thought about things? The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini gave me an insight into Afghanistan before the intervention of the Taliban and the Russians. It was refreshing to see it from the perspective of someone who lived there: the sense of community, the artists and traders, before it became synonymous with politics and terrorism. Who do you want to apologise to? I wish I’d had the chance to apologise to my mother Maria before she passed away, for the times that I yelled at her in moments of frustration. I always meant well but I am only human. Who would play you in the film of your life? The film would have to concentrate on my childhood and the conflict between me and my father, who pushed me into dancing, so a young, unknown boy. I admire actors like Gael García Bernal and Antonio Banderas very much but I would hate a Hollywood actor, like Denzel Washington, to play my life and speak in English. What did you buy with your first pay cheque? I won the Prix de Lausanne in 1990, and with the $4,000 prize money I bought a colour TV, video player and a sound system for my family in Cuba — everything we craved but could never afford. What’s been your biggest fashion mistake? Wearing a bright, multicoloured salsero shirt to a black tie event at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. I was 18 and had just joined the ENB, but was determined not to wear a jacket and tie. Everyone eyed me up like an alien, but I had the most fun at the ball. What’s your karaoke song? ‘Guantanamera’ — because it’s from Guantanamo, and Guantanamo is synonymous with home. Day of the Flowers is in select cinemas now (dayoftheflowers.com). Pig’s Foot is out now (Bloomsbury, £12.99). Acosta is performing in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House on 7 December (roh.org.uk)