Tony Bill

All right, let's get into the making of the film.

So director Tony Bill began as an actor in the 1960s, appearing mostly in TV shows and some films as a character actor.

My Bodyguard would be his first feature film as a director.

The script was sent to Bill as a writing sample written by Alan Ormsby, who had mostly written horror films up to this point.

His shyness in Meatballs was perfect for the character Clifford in My Bodyguard.

Matt Dillon, like Makepeace, had only appeared in one film prior to My Bodyguard, which was also in 1979, which was the drama-thriller Over the Edge, where, like My Bodyguard, he played a troubled teenager.

Many of the supporting cast that played the kids, when they were hired by Tony Bill, didn't necessarily have a set part for them.

Instead, once they hired the actor, they then wrote a character around their personalities, which is kind of genius in some ways.

But when I realized that the wind is gonna kinda blow me wherever it's gonna blow me, I started putting on more hats and allowed myself to be pushed into whatever direction things were happening.

I mean, I could give you lots of stories, Mark, about like I was flown across the country by Tony Bill.

Tony Bill is the Oscar-winning producer of The Sting.

He read one of my plays, this short play.

He, he didn't read it.

But I look back now, I'm like, oh, these are just small, little crappy theaters.

And, um, I started putting, you know, uh, shows together.

And if I hadn't done that, I never would've met Tony Bill.

But when I realized that the wind is going to kind of blow me wherever it's going to blow me, I started putting on more hats and allowed myself to be pushed into whatever direction things were happening.

I mean, I could give you lots of stories, Mark, about, like, I was flown across the country by Tony Bill.

Tony Bill is the Oscar-winning producer of The Sting.

He read one of my plays, this short play.

He didn't read it.

But I look back now, I'm like, oh, these are just small little crappy theaters.

And I started putting, you know, shows together.

And if I hadn't done that, I never would have met Tony Bill.