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Kanye West’s former safety guard Steve Stanulis ‘can’t escape’ the tabloid drama, even 7 years later. So he made a tell-all documentary about it.


Steve Stanulis is a filmmaker who labored as a bodyguard for Kanye West in 2016.Steve Stanulis

  • Steve Stanulis is a filmmaker who labored safety for Kanye West in 2016.

  • He needs to place his time working for the rapper behind him and made a documentary to take action.

  • Stanulis mentioned that “15 Days With Kanye” would be the final phrase on his time working for West.

To make a tell-all documentary a couple of story you have spent years making an attempt to flee might sound counterintuitive.

But when a Google alert detected a 2022 article as soon as once more linking Steve Stanulis to his former shopper Kanye West, now generally known as Ye, Stanulis determined to “just fucking do it.”

And so he did. “15 Days With Kanye,” a documentary produced by Stanulis, together with Dolce Productions and Jennifer DiLandro, debuted at the New York City International Film Festival in January, the place it received the award for finest documentary.

 

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A former police officer, Stanulis labored for Ye in 2016 as a part of his safety element. However, a highly-publicized dispute introduced the job to a swift finish after solely 15 days. New York Daily News reported that Stanulis had been fired for talking with Ye’s then-wife Kim Kardashian as she was getting ready for the Met Gala, although sources near the couple disputed the claim to TMZ. Stanulis then told the Daily Mail that he did not “hit on” Kardashian however as an alternative launched himself, after which he was left behind and informed he would not be wanted the next day after talking together with her. He additionally spoke within the interview about West not treating him with “respect.”

That was practically seven years in the past. The bodyguard turned movie producer has since helped helm films like 2022’s “Monica,” an intimate drama that premiered on the Venice International Film Festival. Even with a critically acclaimed indie and an ever-expanding résumé, Stanulis feels he “cannot escape.”

Photographs of Stanulis standing outside a Brooklyn club with Khloé Kardashian’s ex, Tristan Thompson, circulated in 2018. In 2021, he was named in a TikTook consumer’s hoax claiming that Stanulis had facilitated a secret rendezvous between the influencer and Ye (Stanulis sent him a cease and desist). His title additionally continues to look in Ye-adjacent media, like this 2022 Sports Manor post reporting unsubstantiated rumors about Ye, Kim Kardashian, and the NBA player Chris Paul. The piece had nothing to do with Stanulis however included a whole part about him anyway.

Throughout “15 Days With Kanye,” Stanulis, his pals, and his household insist that he’d like to interrupt free from the centripetal power of the superstar controversy.

“You are not gonna get away from it no matter what you do, it’s gonna be a part of you anyway,” Stanulis informed Insider. “So embrace it, put it to bed, and go from there.”

kanye west stepping out onto metal steps outside a building in soho, wearing a jean jacket with pen writing on it and a black hoodie. behind him, coming out of the door, is security detail steve stanulis, a man wearing a black leather jacket with white detailing, and slicked back hairkanye west stepping out onto metal steps outside a building in soho, wearing a jean jacket with pen writing on it and a black hoodie. behind him, coming out of the door, is security detail steve stanulis, a man wearing a black leather jacket with white detailing, and slicked back hair

Stanulis following Kanye West in New York City in February 2016.Raymond Hall/GC Images

Stanulis mentioned that his affiliation with Kanye has affected his profession

It’s troublesome to reconcile Stanulis’ narrative of regularly getting dragged again into Ye’s orbit when he is spoken voluntarily a number of occasions about his time working for the rapper, corresponding to on the “Hollywood Raw Podcast” in 2020.

Stanulis maintains that he would not invoke the previous gig for clout and says within the documentary that he solely started to talk out concerning the Met Gala controversy when he wasn’t paid promptly by the gig’s third-party employer.

When Stanulis made feedback within the media about Kardashian’s Paris theft, he informed Insider that he was talking in his capability as a former police officer. He wasn’t making an attempt to supply “dirt” on the couple, however commenting on whether or not or not he might have prevented it if he had been nonetheless detailing them.

“I’m not Batman,” Stanulis mentioned.

kanye west, kim kardashian, and a very young north west photographed on the street in new yokr. in the background, behind kim holding north, bodyguard steve stanulis stands, looking over to the side.kanye west, kim kardashian, and a very young north west photographed on the street in new yokr. in the background, behind kim holding north, bodyguard steve stanulis stands, looking over to the side.

West and Kim Kardashian, holding daughter North West, on the road in New York City in February 2016, with Stanulis within the background.Marc Piasecki/GC Images

The problem for him, he informed Insider, is about his popularity.

Stanulis mentioned that “every single time” he did one thing, like “Monica” or his 2020 film “5th Borough,” conversations would “always go back to Kanye and I.”

“If I was trying to find an investor that didn’t know me, and they Google me, they’d be like, ‘He’s not a filmmaker, he’s a fucking bodyguard,'” mentioned Stanulis.

While ’15 Days With Kanye’ could not totally reclaim the narrative, it is offered some closure for Stanulis

Many of the tales that Stanulis tells in “15 Days With Kanye” are ones that he is informed earlier than and will “recite” whereas “doing my bills,” he informed Insider. There are no exceptionally excessive stakes within the documentary, nor will the movie change anybody’s notion of Ye, Stanulis mentioned.

(It’s value noting that in latest months, Ye has done more to tarnish his own legacy than Stanulis doubtless ever might, primarily via antisemitic comments, in addition to different problematic statements about slavery and his troubling social-media posts about his ex-wife and her former boyfriend Pete Davidson.)

steve stanulis in the background of a photo of ye, cradling his daughter north west to his chest, and walking on the street. north is very young in this photo, her face away from the camera, and stanulis stands a few paces behind ye, seemingly looking in front of himsteve stanulis in the background of a photo of ye, cradling his daughter north west to his chest, and walking on the street. north is very young in this photo, her face away from the camera, and stanulis stands a few paces behind ye, seemingly looking in front of him

West and North West in New York City in February 2016, with Stanulis within the background.Michael Stewart/GC Images

It’s unclear if the documentary, which Stanulis would not have concrete plans to launch after its screening on the New York City International Film Festival, will be capable of wholly reclaim a story challenged by supernova celebrities and cemented by seven years of tabloid protection.

A Staten Island native and father of three, Stanulis’ life definitely would not appear to revolve round being Kanye’s ex-bodyguard, however I do perceive the place he is coming from. The movie’s creation and launch signify a sort of closure, a remaining phrase on Stanulis’ personal phrases. Well, possibly.

“Once this is over if we ever speak again, and I mention Kanye, then I will give you whatever,” Stanulis informed me. “Then I lose a bet.”

Read the unique article on Insider

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