‘I used to get blown up a lot. Serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’d get ambushed nearly every day with insurgents shooting at us and planting roadside bombs. We needed every form of protection: armoured trucks, guns, ammunition, medical kits, oxygen – everything for trauma, bleeding, gunshot wounds. And body bags.
I also had a stint working as a ship security officer, mainly on oil tankers and gas carriers in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia, protecting them against piracy. It bore an uncomfortable resemblance to Captain Phillips, the Tom Hanks film – a movie that I can confirm is extremely true to life.
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Whenever I served overseas, there was always a threat you were going to get killed, and many people I knew were. Then I bumped into someone I knew who’d gone into private security. ‘You’ve got to get in on this,’ he said. ‘It’s more money, more time off and less stress.’ I didn’t want to miss out.
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When I was 26, I had my first job as a personal bodyguard. I only found out who it was when I went to pick him up at the airport – and it was Michael Jackson. I didn’t think much of it at the time but looking back, it was a crazy experience. The fans were never malicious, but they were relentless in trying to grab him or crawl underneath our legs to get to him.
I went back to Iraq for a little while after that before the calls started coming in. I wasn’t looking for celebrity work – it just happened as my name got passed around. Kendall Jenner was my first, and then it went on to people like Rita Ora, Halsey and Bella Hadid.
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It was nowhere near as wild as working for Michael [Jackson] but fashion weeks were particularly difficult: enormous buildings, grand entrances, multiple layers of security and, as a bodyguard, it’s your responsibility to get these models in and out on time.
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I ended up in magazines when I was looking after very famous women. Brands know that a bodyguard to the big stars is going to be photographed, so you get gifted quite a few things. I don’t know if I was ever gifted anything really big the way bodyguards are now, but what I did get was attention.
When Vogue started writing about my style, it made me think about why I was promoting another brand’s bomber jacket when I could be designing my own. During Covid, I established my own fashion brand, Simon Newton London. We started with a bomber jacket and since then we’ve added tracksuits, t-shirts and polo shirts.
In 2010, I’d just finished a job with the Dubai royal family when a film agency called and asked if I wanted to play a US Special Forces soldier in a Matt Damon film, Green Zone. A few years later, I was working as a body double for Dave Bautista.
Between the two, something clicked – I was doing all the things I’d do in the military, but without the added stress of people shooting back. Now I’m committing to acting fully. Last year I finished filming the latest instalment of Rise of the Footsoldier with Craig Fairbrass, and I have other big projects lined up.
Because of the acting I’ve started going to the Cannes Film Festival every year, but it’s also a chance to catch up with some of the people I used to look after. It’s different going to these places now because I’m there in my own right. It feels slightly strange but I suppose that’s the point. You make the biggest leaps in life when you’re uncomfortable.’
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 100. Click here to subscribe
