Throughout his lifetime, Simon Newton has had quite the career. From serving in the British Army to being a bodyguard for celebrities including Michael Jackson and Kendall Jenner, his career has gone from strength to strength. Now an actor, Simon has opened up about his time working as a professional bodyguard and how a chance opportunity in 2003 saw his career take a very different turn.
But despite working for some of the biggest celebrities on the planet, Simon has never been starstruck by any of his clients. Given the importance of his role, it’s crucial that he remains professional at all times. “It just depends on who it is, what the visit is and what they do for a job,” he explains. “So some you get close to. For a lot of people I was with, I worked on my own, whereas with Jackson there were five of us. It just depends on what the day is.”
“You don't know anyone, so you have to build a little book of different agencies and labels,” he explains. “To start with it can be quite hard for guys if they’ve got a family and a mortgage and all that. It's quite uncertain in the early days.” “In 2017 or 2018, I thought, ‘I don't want to be a bodyguard. I've done it.’ I thought, ‘I enjoyed the acting’ and I always said I'll do it. So I took a clean break from the security industry and then I went to acting school,” he says.