Filmmaker Mike Figgis on anxiety: why it works like smoke, what a doctor taught him about music, and why connection is the real antidote. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E7.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 7, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) turns to anxiety — the pernicious, hard-to-grasp feeling that comes with a daily loss of control over the world we live in. He explores how our money-driven, isolating culture feeds it, how he first met it in the Hollywood studio system, and what a doctor once told him about why being a musician was keeping him well.

He gets into anxiety as a storytelling tool — the Iago-like manipulation at the heart of Internal Affairs — why cinema catches the small voice of anxiety that theatre can’t, and what Marina Abramović taught him about shame and catharsis. Then he makes the case that the real antidote is connection: saying good morning to strangers, getting out of your flat, and the collective humanity that gets people through hard times. Plus your questions, on what anxiety cost him creatively and being a “fly on the wall” on a Coppola set.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Anxiety

00:09 What anxiety really is — a loss of control

00:55 The cycling thoughts you can’t switch off

01:46 The anxiety of a callous, money-driven culture

02:44 Why connection beats anxiety — and how money corrupts it

03:52 Hollywood, a ruptured disc & the doctor who said “you’re a musician”

05:27 Music, meditation and knowing everyone’s anxious

06:41 Why it’s OK to talk about your anxiety

07:12 Anxiety as a storytelling tool — Internal Affairs & Othello

09:12 The small voice of anxiety — why cinema catches it

11:03 Marina Abramović, shame and catharsis

12:08 Why anxiety climbs with status — and the bigger picture

13:02 Centering yourself — and learning to spot it

14:09 Is your anxiety based on reality? On children and the planet

15:37 Saying good morning — small acts against anxiety

17:34 The driving-a-car thought, and the case for collective humanity

20:51 Listener questions — Stasha (Toronto): what anxiety cost you

23:23 Anne (Toronto): being a “fly on the wall” on a Coppola set

28:30 Closing — go say hello to someone you don’t know

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Internal Affairs · Mr. Jones · and Mike’s own Leaving Las Vegas

People — Richard Gere · Andy Garcia · David Lynch · Francis Ford Coppola · Marlon Brando · Ingmar Bergman · artist Marina Abramović · writer Paul Auster · filmmaker Jonas Mekas

Ideas — Iago and Othello · music and meditation as antidotes to anxiety

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Note: this episode discusses anxiety and mental health.

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