Matthias Dandois - Centre Stage
Juggling the life of a pro rider, actor, model and producer
27 Aug 2021
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Vans' man of many talents, Matthias Dandois has been working on a new video with Alex Valentino and it turned out so good. Seamless links, effortless flow and ground breaking flatland tricks. Sit back and enjoy fresh footage from the Frenchman and then find out how this recently crowned flatland (9 time) World Champion juggles his multiple creative outlets in the interview below...
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How does winning the World Championships compare to landing a lead part in a movie? Do you get the same level of excitement from both?
100% sure that winning The World Championships this year took way more hard work thank landing the part in the movie.
Somehow the movie kind of happened randomly whereas the World Championships was all planned.
But I definitely got the same level of excitement for both, they were both amazing human experiences and I feel very lucky that I get to live these things.
How do you juggle the life of a pro rider, actor, model and producer? Are there enough hours in the day?
I like to think of my life as a Tetris game. Everything has to be organized and planned so all the small parts fit together and you end up winning the game.
I usually get the pro rider part done in the morning (I wake up at 8, go to the gym and ride for a couple of hours), and then I have the rest of the day free to work on my different project. The production part has been taking most of my free time lately because we are still a very small company and I have to take care of a lot of things: writing the projects, location check, communication with the brands… but I absolutely love to do it.
The modelling part doesn’t really eats up too much of my time and it’s pretty easy.
Whenever we look on your instagram, you are somewhere different in the world. Have covid restrictions affected you much over the past few years?
Yes I have been so lucky to be able to still travel and work during Covid. I did the first confinement in New York City which was great cause there was no lockdown there, and I made the most of NYC being empty.
Then I went to Paris in June 2020. It’s super easy to travel within the Schengen space since I’m fully vaccinated. Though it still impossible for me to travel to the US and it’s super annoying. I’m missing a ton of jobs there, but it is what it is. Let’s see how it’s going to evolve.
Can you tell us more about your producing work? Any thing we can look out for?
For sure!
So for a few years now, I started noticing that when I had to shoot a project for a mainstream client (with people that had no idea how to shoot BMX), I was giving these people tips or feedback on how to get the best footage possible.
I quickly realised that this is something that I could monetize and we started the production company with my agent Guillaume Valladeau, it’s called ASI media. (@asiprod)
At first we started to offer my sponsors the opportunity to produce the content for them, so they didn’t have to find a project, a production company and all that stuff. We do everything from A to Z.
Now it grew up quite fast during Covid and we produce stuff for many athletes in my agent portfolio. We put brands in contact with athletes, we consult brands for social media advices, basically a 360 media agency.
Our latest project is gonna come out next September and we shot interviews of people running.
So far away from BMX, but when you look at it, when you know how to shoot BMX you know how to shoot everything.
And also that gives me the opportunity to work with my friends and this is priceless.
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"I like to think of my life as a Tetris game. Everything has to be organized and planned so all the small parts fit together and you end up winning the game."
Have you got any BMX plans coming up? Any teasers you can give us?
For sure! I’m currently in Switzerland for a big Flatland contest. Basically a multi-millionaire car seller who is a huge BMX fan (and a good flatland rider) is putting together this contest with the 10 best riders in the world with a huge prize money, in his secret garage. Good times!
I have a video part with Haro that’s gonna come out in October to promote my frame La Bastille, and I will make a new BMX sponsor announcement later this year! Stay tuned!
Can we expect to see you in any more movies?
Being an actor is a full time job, you have to take classes multiple times a week, you have to go to castings, it takes months to shoot a movie and the salary is pretty shit if you aren’t a movie star… so I’m taking it easy for now with acting, but this was a really dope experience.
Would you ever make a BMX related movie?
That would be sick to make the remake of BMX bandit with Nicole Kidman, I saw she posted up Logan the other day!
Like it or not I think BMX being at the Olympic is going to open a lot of new doors and a lot of business for the scene, so let’s see if we can make a BMX feature film one day! That would be so sick!
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