A former bodyguard for Kanye West got candid about his brief time working for the mogul and muscian.
While speaking with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn on the podcast "Hollywood Raw," Steve Stanulis told some stories that gave insight into West's behavior, saying he had "ridiculous rules."
“He wanted you to stay 10 paces behind him on a city street,” Stanulis claimed. “So obviously if someone is going to come up and do something, by the time I try to run up and prevent it, it would have already happened.”
Stanulis claimed their first interaction was tense when West got upset at him for not pressing a button on an elevator when the two met.
“It was fashion week...I was supposed to meet him at the studio,” Stanulis said. “When he gets there, we get into the elevator and he’s like, ‘Aren’t you going to push what floor we are going to?’ I said, ‘I have no idea, it’s my first day.’ So he starts ranting: ‘So you mean you didn’t call ahead to find out where I’m supposed to be going?’ I said no. So he’s ranting and raving.
According to Stanulis, he gave West three options:
“I said ‘look bro, we can do this one of three ways. One, you could tell me what button to press, and now I’ll know. Two, you could press the button, and I’ll see which one you press so I’ll know. Or three, you can sit in here all day and tell me how important your time is and we are not going to go anywhere.’”
Stanulis, who has worked with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Alanis Morissette, Woody Harrelson, and Tobey Maguire, also claimed that the paparazzi gets called before West shows up places or leaves his home.
“First of all, there’s no way they don't get called upfront,” he said. “There’s no way every time they're leaving, all these people know about it. There’s definitely — somebody's calling ahead. That’s just my opinion.”
He also said the eccentric rapper got upset with him for being in the way of the paparazzi’s lens.
“Technically, I’m supposed to walk in front of you. I gotta make sure you're okay,” he said. “He got mad at me for being in his shot ... Instead of saying thank you, he was mad at me for being in the shot.”
Despite Stanulis’ complaints that West was one of his “least favorite people to work with” and was among the neediest, moodiest and worst-tipping of his clients, he did acknowledge how hard the rapper works.
“I always gave him props for that,” he said.
West nor his wife, Kim Kardashian West, have responded to Stanulis’ claims.
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