Dominique Deruddere Talks About Jamie

How did you come to cast ­Jamie Dornan – who was ­almost unknown at the time – in the lead role?

Dominique Deruddere: My casting directors in Britain had told me about him and ­several other actors. They sent me an uncut scene from this British TV series (The Fall) in which Jamie played a serial killer, so I saw him and thought he was obviously a very solid actor. I asked him to come over to ­Belgium to see if it would work with the couple of girls who had made it to the finals, so I could see how the couple could work. It turned out that Jamie and Charlotte De Bruyne (who plays Isabelle) were the ideal match.

Were you shocked when he then suddenly achieved ­international fame for 50 Shades of Grey?

Dominique Deruddere: Flying Home had finished ­filming already when he was offered 50 Shades. I remember reading in the newspaper that Jamie had been chosen to play the main guy, so I wrote him an email and made fun of him about it. All of a sudden he is now a world famous actor. I’m happy for him.

What’s Jamie’s character like in Flying Home?

Dominique Deruddere: He is a cynical banker who only thinks about money and has no respect for others. That changes when he comes to Belgium and meets regular people leading simple lives. He feels attracted to their lifestyle. And all the simplicity is symbolised in the pigeon, a bird that represents peace and love.

You can read the full interview here

Director Dominique Deruddere Talks About 'Flying Home' (aka 'Racing Hearts') and Jamie

Talks about Jamie at 7:40

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Director Dominique Deruddere Talks About Jamie and 'Racing Hearts' (aka 'Flying Home')

HuffingtonPost - If you can't wait to see Jamie Dornan in his secret room in the forthcoming 'Fifty Shades of Grey', you can catch him in romantic 'Racing Hearts', on home release from this Monday.

Jamie's director Dominique Deruddere, previously Oscar-nominated for 'Everybody's Famous', tells HuffPostUK that he gave this emerging star his first romantic lead role after Jamie visited him in Ghent, and the pair got drunk together.

"He was a total unknown when we were preparing," remembers Dominique. "My British casting director spotted him and told me he was going to be a big star. So I watched a scene from 'The Fall' and I was hooked. I realised this was a very strong personality. Then he came to visit me in Ghent, and we got hopelessly drunk together and hopelessly lost in the town somewhere."

Dominique is pretty chuffed that he was one of the first to spot a star in the making...

"I was really happy with his performance," he remembers. "He played that devil heart man with a soft voice. In one scene, he's listening to his dad telling a story in the attic, and he's a young kid again.

"When I heard he’d got that massive role, I opened up a bottle of champagne to celebrate for him."

Jamie plays Colin, a slick but unemotional Wall Street man, who finds himself in a rural outstop in Flanders, trying to secure a deal for a racing pigeon for a rich sheikh - strange but true. He's also, like a hero in many a fairytale, an outsider on a quest, who is changed forever by love. "I try to avoid realism," explains Dominique. "I refer to this as a parable, it's a nice way to tell a story, hopefully revealing some kind of universal truth."

This novel idea for a film came out of Dominique's own sense of homesickness when he was living and working in LA.

"I moved to LA seven years ago, and I was feeling a bit bored one afternoon," he remembers. "I looked into the sky and saw these racing pigeons, which reminded me of my youth.

"I thought, what are pigeons doing in LA?

"One of my neighbours was a pigeon fancier, he explained the international element, and slowly I thought of a sheikh wanting to have a racing pigeon"...

"So this is a film about love, but also someone being as homesick as me."

'Racing Hearts' is available on DVD from Monday 2 February.

'Flying Home' Director Dominique Deruddere Answers Our Questions About Jamie

Thanks to our friend Celine at Fifty Shades of Grey Fan we got a chance to ask 'Flying Home' director Dominiqe Deruddere two questions about Jamie and here is his answers:

What was it like working with Jamie? 

Dominique Deruddere: "It was very nice working with Jamie. He's a great guy and a very good actor." 

Did Jamie take lessons for his American accent? 

Dominique Deruddere: "I don't know if he took lessons. His US accent was very good right from the start."

And here is Celine's questions and Dominique Deruddere's answers:

Does Jamie like French fries? 

Dominique Deruddere: "Jamie loves French fries with mayonnaise." 

What beer Colin drinks in the movie? Is it Leffe? 

Dominique Deruddere: "The beer Jamie drank when his character was drunk was real. It's called Trappist Beer (Belgian beer)." 

New info about Jamie's character from 'Flying Home' Press Kit + Director Dominique Deruddere talks about Jamie

From Flying Home press kit:

Characters | Cast
Colin | Jamie Dornan

Colin Montgommery has it all. He's young, rich, handsome, intelligent and successful. He lives in New York, ‘on top of the world’. He lives only for his work, has barely a social life, and is willing to go to great lengths to get what he wants. He is a ruthless businessman who does not deviate from his path until he ends up in Flanders, and there he discovers that there is more to life than money and power…

Dominique Deruddere: "The actor we wanted for the role of Colin had to be someone that would be able to portray in a believable way the reversal of a ruthless businessman, who encounters himself in Flanders Fields and questions his lifestyle. Via our British casting agent Kate Dowd, I received a lot of resumes and tapes sent by young actors who fitted the picture 'handsome and successful', but no one appeared to have that ‘second layer’, which is so necessary for the main character. Jamie had more than his 'pretty boy' look at first revealed. I was immediately interested and a scene from the yet unfinished 'The Fall', the series directed by Jakob Verbruggen was decisive to me. This young fashion model turned out to be a solid actor!