‘Outrageous, magnetic and genuinely fearless’: Mike Figgis on Julian Sands

I adored Julian. I’ve never met anyone like him. Our first encounter was in 1987, when I was casting my first film, Stormy Monday. We had a coffee in the Hyatt hotel on Sunset Boulevard and he basically thrust himself forward and said: “I’ve got to play this part! This is me.”

He was so pushy but I found his boldness very endearing. He was wrong for the role; I ended up casting Sean Bean. But I was very tickled by his enthusiasm and we became friends.

We would go to concerts with his wife, Evgenia. I immediately got along very well with her, and I love his children too – I’m godfather to his daughter, Natalya. Julian introduced me to the farmers market in LA, a hipster hang-out where the likes of Paul Mazursky and Robert Altman