Director, Mike Figgis, 2x Oscar Nominee, was detained at LAX for 5 hours. When he was being grilled by Customs as to the purpose of his visit, he said without thinking, “I’m here to shoot a pilot”. Now I don’t blame security officials for being overly cautious in this case, but 5 hours seems excessive. Here’s more
UPDATE: This story is completely bogus. I just received this message from Figgis’ publicist:
The story is a complete exageration of something I said in an interview, namely…I was being questioned in toronto airport by the US immigration officer who said “purpose of your visit?” and I was about to reply “I’m here to shoot a pilot” when I thought better of it and said
“I’m here to film the 1st episode of a potential series for Fox/Sony”
This was exactly as I said it to the journalist and the next I knew of it was phone calls wishing me deepest sympathies etc and the venue had moved to LAX and I had been arrested etc etc.
I’ve had distortion before in interviews but never fiction. If it had been true it would have been a good story - sorry to dissappoint All the best - mike figgis