The Louis Theroux Podcast

Podbit · The Louis Theroux Podcast

S7 EP8: Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Stone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie

Explore episode Apr 20, 2026
TV & Film
How Lanthimos Built His Craft: 10,000 Hours in Advertising

S7 EP8: Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Stone,… · Apr 20, 2026 TV & Film

Before his debut features, Lanthimos spent years directing at least one commercial per week in Athens. Louis Theroux compares it to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000-hour rule: Lanthimos mastered technical filmmaking in the commercial world, then applied that accumulated expertise to making features with almost no money.

Where this was said

Origin Story: Greek Film School, No Industry, and 10,000 Hours in Ads

At 20:05 · chapter starts 16:45

Lanthimos traces his path from a childhood watching Indiana Jones and Back to the Future through a small private film school in Athens where he discovered Tarkovsky, Bresson, Cassavetes, and Buñuel. He entered advertising because it was the only viable career adjacent to filmmaking in a country where the concept of being a filmmaker barely existed — a handful of established directors like Theo Angelopoulos had a lock on the Greek Film Center's resources. The advertising boom of the early 2000s, fuelled by mobile phone companies and cheap bank loans, gave Lanthimos years of intensive commercial work — sometimes a commercial a week — which Louis compares to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000-hour rule. By the time Lanthimos and his friends decided to make Dogtooth with €250,000 and no infrastructure, he already had complete technical command of the craft.

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