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

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note on Instagram: https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

Note: this episode discusses anxiety and mental health.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filmmaker Mike Figgis on fear: from a violent childhood to the age of AI, why the media sells it, and how love and connection keep it at bay. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E6.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 6, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on fear — starting with a drunken speech to a room full of artists, a 9/11 theory that made him a pariah, and today’s dread of AI and drones. He traces fear through his own life: a colonial childhood among terrified adults in Kenya, the first real, physical fear of a violent Newcastle school, and why a great horror film can disturb us more than reality itself.

He gets into fear of dying, flying and failure, the choice he made after Leaving Las Vegas to chase fun over a safe studio career, and a quiet moment on the London Underground that captures everything. Then he takes your questions: on whether we get wiser with age, whether the media is weaponising fear, and whether “perfect love casts out fear” — closing on connection, and the courage it takes to ask for help.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 A story to start — fear on stage

00:20 A drunken speech, and the fear of being judged

02:23 The 9/11 theory that made him a pariah

04:34 AI, drones and the fear of losing all control

05:53 Colonial Kenya, the Mau Mau and inherited fear

08:14 First real fear — a violent Newcastle school

10:02 Why horror films frighten him more than reality

11:12 The power of cinema to scare — The Spiral Staircase

12:36 What fear does to us, and how it shifts with age

14:17 Hollywood, with yourself at the centre of the universe

15:43 Fear of dying, flying & failure — the choice after Leaving Las Vegas

17:05 Choosing fun over the safe studio career

18:46 Courage, and the fear of being powerless

19:37 “Can I hold your hand” — a moment on the Tube

20:46 Listener questions — DPK (Toronto): do we get wiser with age?

26:02 James (Mississauga): is the media weaponising fear?

28:46 Don (Trenton): does perfect love cast out fear?

31:11 Closing — connection, and the courage to ask for help

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Repulsion (Polanski) · Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Lynch) · The Spiral Staircase · On the Waterfront · Timecode · Hotel · The Loss of Sexual Innocence · and Mike’s own Leaving Las Vegas

People — Roman Polanski · David Lynch · Elia Kazan (his autobiography “A Life”) · Francis Ford Coppola · historian A.J.P. Taylor

Idea — the line “perfect love casts out fear”

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note and it could feature in a future episode — DM us on Instagram: @figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

Note: this episode discusses fear, violence and mental health, including references to war.

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Fear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filmmaker Mike Figgis on sadness: why he thrives on it, how grief deepens with age, and what can make sadness beautiful. A candid episode on loss. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E5.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 5, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) turns to sadness, grief and melancholy — the bedrock, he argues, that every moment of joy is measured against. He explores why grief deepens as we age, why we feel it in the heart, and how sad music and tragic drama, from the blues to Greek theatre to Tchaikovsky, work as a kind of catharsis and medicine.

He shares some of his most personal stories: a first heartbreak waiting up until 3am, a bad LSD trip at 18 that cost him a year, and — most movingly — the loss of his sister, and the moment in an airport that first broke his grief open. Then he takes your questions: on where joy has gone in modern film, how he channels sadness into work, and how you make sadness beautiful again after losing someone you love.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Sadness, grief & melancholy

00:21 “I thrive on sadness”

01:03 Why Leaving Las Vegas works through sadness

02:22 Measuring sadness — and “the loss of a loved one”

03:33 Why grief deepens as you age

04:45 Why we feel grief in the heart

05:33 The three stages of sadness

06:44 His first heartbreak — waiting until 3am

11:04 Drawn to sadness in books, film and music

12:20 The blues, the minor third & Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique

13:46 “Grief is so beautiful” — sad music as catharsis

15:37 Greek drama and the sharing of grief

16:30 Losing loved ones — and valuing friends more

18:12 A bad trip, a year of fear, and facing it down

21:43 Listener questions — Philip (Oklahoma City): where did joy go?

24:28 Krista (Edmonton): notebooks, routine & sleep

27:00 Lena (Texas): making sadness beautiful after loss

33:34 Paul Mazursky, regeneration & a word on the joy to come

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Leaving Las Vegas · Licorice Pizza

People — Nicolas Cage · Elisabeth Shue · Jack Nicholson · filmmaker Paul Mazursky

Music & ideas — Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony · the blues and the minor third · Greek tragedy · “The 36 Dramatic Situations” and its final one, the loss of a loved one · the funeral scene in Huckleberry Finn

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note and it could feature in a future episode — DM us on Instagram: @figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

Note: this episode includes candid discussion of grief, bereavement and drug use.

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Sadness

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.