One Flew Over My Left Foot

Damien O'Donnell returned to Ireland to make his latest feature Inside I'm Dancing, a film which inhabits the nebulous region where sharp comedy meets heartfelt emotion. Lir Mac Cárthaigh talks to him about political correctness, the Irish film industry... and Tony Kenny.

Lir Mac Cárthaigh: I was curious about the project's genesis. The screenplay is by Jeffrey Caine, who is best known for his work in the spy/adventure genre.

Damien O'Donnell: It all comes down to James Flynn and Juanita Wilson at Octogon Films – it's their project. Christian O'Reilly, who originated the story, worked as a personal assistant for a guy who has muscular dystrophy. He came up with the idea and pitched it to James. They needed to give it a bit of a polish, so they went to Jeffrey wrote a very engaging screenplay, which was sort of a progression of what Christian had done; made it much more about the friendship between the guys, kind of pictured it as a buddy film. It was sent to me and I engaged with it. I liked the characters, I liked the interaction, I liked the conceit of the fact that you couldn't understand what one of them was saying. And I'd never made a film in Ireland, so I got attached to it.

James Flynn is a great man at putting a project together, he's got great experience and he has all the connections. I read it in April, and we were filming it by October. I think that's a nice position to be in. People can get attached to films years before they ever get made – and that's not something I'm into. I'm not into waiting around to make a film.

The printed version of the article is printed in Film Ireland 100.
An extended version of this interview can be found here.