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

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

Note: this episode discusses anxiety and mental health.

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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

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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

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on desire: the disruptive force behind every great story, why we’re drawn to the forbidden, and learning to enjoy it without acting on it. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E4.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 4, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on his favourite subject for drama — desire. Starting with Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire, he argues that desire is fundamentally disruptive: the thing that arrives from left field and threatens all the stability we’ve built, from marriage to the modern dream of controlling even death. Drawing on the philosopher Georges Bataille, he explores why desire feeds on prohibition, why we’re pulled toward the forbidden, and how possession and destruction are never far apart.

He tells the story of casting Richard Gere in Internal Affairs — the complex Hollywood outsider nobody wanted — then takes your questions: on desire left deliberately unresolved, how to tell a desire that’s truly yours from one shaped by others, and how desire becomes the engine of great drama. He closes on how desire changes with age — not as something to act on, but as a creative wellspring that “happens between your two ears.”

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Desire — Figgis’s favourite subject for drama

00:19 Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire

01:13 Why desire is a disruptive force

01:55 Marriage, and the vow no one can really make

02:59 Bataille: desire needs a taboo to break

04:42 The fear of death and the urge to control everything

06:35 Internal Affairs — desire, power & Richard Gere

07:57 Casting Richard Gere, Hollywood’s outsider

10:37 Temptation, and the signal that someone’s “up for it”

12:19 The lure of the forbidden

14:09 Possession, and “if I can’t have it, no one can”

15:18 Listener questions — Dave (Toronto): desire left unresolved

19:56 Jada (Toronto): is a desire truly your own?

23:53 Eric (Seattle): desire as the engine of drama

26:17 Desire tempered by age — a creative wellspring

28:46 “You don’t have to act on it” — a final word

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel) · Internal Affairs · Fatal Attraction · Looking for Mr. Goodbar · Days of Heaven · and Mike’s own Leaving Las Vegas

People — Richard Gere · Andy Garcia · Laurie Metcalf · writer Henry Bean · Georges Bataille · Jerry Bruckheimer

Book — Diary of a Mad Old Man by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

📸 Daniel Raczynski

🎙️ 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

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Desire

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on love: why it never quite works, what makes true love closer to friendship, and the films and songs that get it right. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E3.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 3, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on the most complex subject of all — love. He begins with the love songs of the American songbook and asks why love has all but vanished from modern music, then turns to Einstein and the philosopher Georges Bataille to ask why desire so often curdles into disappointment, and why the truest love might look more like deep friendship than romance.

Along the way: a year-long love affair sustained entirely through perfumed letters he couldn't actually read, why the suffering of love has always drawn him more than happy endings, the films that define love for him — from Elvira Madigan to Bonnie and Clyde — and what a single look on Billie Holiday's face reveals about the whole thing. Then he takes your questions: on inviting your exes to your wedding, whether love is worth the pain, and how love shifts across a lifelong marriage.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Love — the most complex subject of all

00:37 A roll-call of love songs — and what vanished from them

03:23 Einstein on marriage, desire and disappointment

04:20 Why his films are all about broken love

05:05 Georges Bataille: desire, and why marriage palls

07:51 "True love is deep friendship"

09:04 A fool for love — chasing the unattainable

09:51 The perfumed letters he couldn't read for a year

12:36 Why the suffering of love appeals to him

14:00 "I like you": how language fails love

14:47 Saying "I love you" — the point of no return

16:06 When a friendship turns into love

16:52 True love stories — Leaving Las Vegas & One Night Stand

17:36 Elvira Madigan — his favourite love film

20:04 Love as a clash of two forces

21:01 Listener questions — Nithya (Hong Kong): exes at your wedding?

25:28 Mark (Toronto): is love worth the pain?

31:11 Carol (Ottawa): love across a lifelong marriage

38:04 The most profound love on film — Billie Holiday & Lester Young

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Elvira Madigan · Bonnie and Clyde · My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Éric Rohmer) · One Night Stand · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

Thinkers — Albert Einstein · Georges Bataille (Story of the Eye) · Albert Camus · Michael Ondaatje

Music — the American love-song standards · Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 · Billie Holiday & Lester Young, "Fine and Mellow" (from the 1957 TV special The Sound of Jazz, on YouTube)

🎙️ 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

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on rage: the violence that shaped him, the fury he learned to turn into film, and why anger still needs an outlet. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E2.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 2, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on anger and rage — beginning with a man who insists he isn't angry, then tracing where that belief cracks. From a childhood thrown from colonial East Africa into a violent Newcastle school, to the friend who taught him to stand his ground, to the "psychedelic rage" of an out-of-body fantasy in a Hollywood studio meeting, he examines how a lifetime of watching for danger became both a survival instinct and a filmmaker's eye.

He tells the story behind his near-fight with Ridley Scott in an edit suite — and how that exact moment became a scene in Leaving Las Vegas — then opens out into rage on screen (Taxi Driver, Network), the difference between anger and rage, and how punk turned fury into something a whole generation could use. Then he takes your questions: what he does with his own rage, when we shouldn't trust our instincts, and what Muhammad Ali might have made of the age of outrage.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 "I don't think of myself as an angry man"

00:20 From colonial Africa to a brutal Newcastle school

02:53 Reg Easton, and learning to fight back

04:07 A radar for violence — "always watch the room"

04:52 Hollywood, and a fantasy of "psychedelic rage"

08:02 Ridley Scott, The Browning Version & a near-fight

12:09 Turning that rage into a scene in Leaving Las Vegas

13:56 Repressed rage on screen — Taxi Driver & Network

14:54 Rage vs anger — and "creative anger"

16:35 Bad rage vs productive rage — punk and "mad as hell"

18:02 A digression: Network and Faye Dunaway

20:31 Listener questions — Mark (Ontario): what do you do with rage?

24:24 Annie (Mumbai): when should we not trust our instincts?

26:37 Bob (London): Muhammad Ali, Trump & the age of outrage

29:43 "Bring on the rage" — a closing note

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Taxi Driver · Network · The Browning Version · Internal Affairs · Thelma & Louise · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

People — Ridley Scott · Albert Finney · Anthony Hopkins · Julian Sands · Elisabeth Shue · Faye Dunaway · David Lynch · Muhammad Ali · the Coen brothers · Powell & Pressburger

Music — the rage of punk: the Sex Pistols and The Clash

📸 Daniel Raczynski

🎙️ 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 frank discussion of childhood violence and abuse.

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Rage

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on happiness: why it's dangerous, the childhood moment that defined it, and why he distrusts happy endings. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E1.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 1, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) begins with happiness — a kitchen table stripped at 3am, a boyhood night hearing Louis Armstrong's trumpet cut through the red velvet curtains of the Newcastle Odeon beside his father, and a lifetime spent watching people to understand what a genuine smile really is.

He explores why happiness can only be measured against sadness (by way of John Berger's Ways of Seeing), the actor's exercise that exposes sadness as our default setting, the "mask of happiness" he strips away when taking portraits, and the newspaper photograph of a rescued Australian family that moved him to tears. Then he answers your questions — on what gets him out of bed, the spirituality running through his films, why he casts actors who've stepped away from the mainstream (Kim Novak, Nastassja Kinski, Richard Gere), and whether Leaving Las Vegas could be made in 2026.

He closes with his own recommendations on happiness: two books, two live jazz recordings, and one perfect Hitchcock film.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Season 2 — what happiness really is

01:14 A boy, his father & Louis Armstrong at the Odeon

04:04 Edinburgh: a failed comedian and his father's cough

05:18 Why happiness is dangerous — John Berger

06:13 "Show me happiness": the actor's exercise

07:33 Portraits and the mask of happiness

08:36 The Australian beach rescue that moved him

12:10 Listener questions — Clarissa (Toronto): what gets you out of bed?

14:16 Happiness is meant to be shared

17:14 A people-watcher's joy: stations & airports

19:06 Sasha (Ukraine): spirituality in his films

23:01 Doug (Boston): casting actors who stepped away

26:28 Jay (Amsterdam): could Leaving Las Vegas be made today?

29:22 Recommendations — books, live jazz & a Hitchcock film

33:22 Final thoughts: don't plan happiness

📚 Mentioned in this episode

Books — A Fan's Notes (Fred Exley) · Something Happened (Joseph Heller) · Ways of Seeing (John Berger) · Diary of a Mad Old Man (Tanizaki)

Music — Louis Armstrong's 1948 live all-star concert · Duke Ellington at Newport '56, "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" (Paul Gonsalves)

Films — Notorious (Hitchcock) · Festen · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

📸 Daniel Raczynski

🎙️ 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

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Happiness

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In his new book, Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945, Ian Buruma explores the complexities of survival and daily life under Nazi rule. He talks to Mike about the book, his longtime interest in China and Japan, and their shared experiences with a legendary Dutch avant-garde theatre.

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