Trick or Treat was to be the first film from Enigma, David Puttnam’s company. Directed by Michael Apted, it was a thriller made on location in Rome, starring one of the then most photographed women on the planet, Bianca Jagger. My friend Vincent Winter was 1st AD and called me asking if I’d like to come on the picture, not as a full time stuntman, but as bodyguard for Ms Jagger, and also perform one stunt on the film. ‘Sounds like fun,’ I said. It was.
I was due to meet Ms Jagger at Heathrow but the production office phoned to tell me she hadn’t made the flight and to go home. This went on for four days. On the fifth day I was told to get on a plane and wait for her in Rome. So I was now in the Hassler hotel, top of the Spanish Steps, in the Presidential suite, fantastic. I was there three days and she didn’t turn up. Then the phone went. ‘She’s arriving at ten o’clock tonight.’ I picked her up at the airport and the first thing Bianca said to me as she got in the back of the car was, ‘Have you got a piece?’ I said, ‘Beg your pardon?’ She said, ‘Have you got a gun?’ I went, ‘No, of course I haven’t got a gun!’ She said, ‘If I’m being kidnapped we need a gun.’ I said, ‘I’m not having a gun. By the time I think about using it, it’ll be all over.’ Then she gave me this duty free bag. ‘Don’t lose that, there’s thirty grand’s worth of jewellery in it.’ I thought, Jesus Christ. Back at the hotel she started unpacking so I went to bed. One o’clock in the morning, my door burst open. She wanted to go out partying. I don’t think we were back at the hotel before four o’clock any morning after that. Bianca was a real night bird. It was unbelievable.
Rome was bubbling in the mid-70s, everybody was in town – Liza Minnelli, Donald Sutherland, Roger Moore – Bianca knew them all and we partied like crazy. Liza Minnelli sometimes stayed the night in our suite and it was funny seeing her again because she used to go out with Desi Arnaz Jr, who’d been in Billy Two Hats. They had the room next to mine on that movie and I’d hear them fighting all night long. They had a terribly turbulent relationship.
Bianca refused to go anywhere without me in case she was photographed by the paparazzi, then she could always tell Mick that the guy on her arm was her bodyguard. The problem was you couldn’t get her out of bed to go to work the next morning. I’d run her a bath but she was just exhausted. One morning there was a loud bang on the door. I opened it to see just a big hat and a coat saying, ‘Hello, you must be Vic. I’m Mick.’ Oh my God, it’s Mick Jagger! I love the Stones, and was totally star-struck.
For the next four days Bianca didn’t go to work but just hung around with Mick. And Mick always included me in the party. One night we went to Jackie O’s, which was the club in Rome, and when they brought the bill for our meal at the end of the evening Mick went through every item. ‘You fucking idiot,’ he said, grabbing hold of the waiter. ‘You think because I’m a rock star I won’t complain and you can top up the bill. You’ve got three puddings here; I never had a pudding. I’ll pay you what you fucking want, but you won’t get a tip.’ And this poor waiter was going, ‘Sorry Mr Jagger, it’s a mistake.’ He said, ‘Fucking mistake, you always expect us to swallow it.’ And I thought, good for Mick, he’s not going to be conned just because he’s a star and embarrassed into it.
I got on really well with Mick. He was a great guy. Years later I was in Mexico City doing Conan the Destroyer and there was a party at Grace Jones’ apartment. Relaxing in a chair somebody grabbed me from behind. ‘Guess who?’ I looked up and it was Mick, he’d remembered me. The next day Grace, Mick, my second wife Wendy and I all flew down to a local resort for the weekend. We arranged to meet at the airport but had agreed not to publicly greet Mick because he wanted to remain inconspicuous. Wendy and I were sitting talking when he arrived with a big hat covering his face, and sat down to read his paper quietly in the corner. Nobody recognised him.
Suddenly I was aware of everyone in the airport turning to look at something. Sashaying through the crowd was Grace Jones in this body stocking, you could see every crack and crevice in her body, and slung round her neck was a big feather boa that clashed like hell. With everybody looking at her she walked straight over to Mick. ‘Hello Mick darling.’ And all these American tourists went, ‘Oh gee, look that’s Mick Jagger!’ For the whole flight these Americans were continually walking past his seat pretending to go to the toilet and coming back to say, ‘Yeah honey, that is Mick Jagger.’ And he was going, ‘Oh Jesus, what have you done Grace...’
Years later I did The World Is Not Enough with Michael Apted and one day I went up to him on the set and said, ‘Do you know this is the second time we’ve worked together?’ He said, ‘Really? What was the other one, Coal Miner’s Daughter?’ ‘No.’ ‘Gorky Park?’ ‘No.’ I left him guessing for a bit before saying, ‘Trick or Treat.’ And he went, ‘Oh my God, don’t say that. I nearly had a nervous breakdown on that movie.’ The story was that Bianca found out that Playboy had invested money in the film and wanted her to perform a semi-lesbian nude scene. ‘Playboy isn’t getting me to go nude for what they’re paying me for this movie,’ she said. ‘I can get 100 grand to do a Playboy centrefold.’ So it all went rotten, they pulled the plug, and the film never got finished, let alone released. It nearly bankrupted Enigma. But Bianca was very sweet and we got on really well. I had a wonderful time with her.
I had another strange job with a sexy lady a few years later. Vincent Winter was working on The Stud in London and called me up again. ‘Vic, Joan Collins has thrown a wobbler, she doesn’t like the guy that’s her masseur, said he’s gay, she wants someone more masculine. Would you do it?’ ‘Sure,’ I said, even though I’d never massaged anybody in my life! I turned up, they put me in a white smock, and there was Joan Collins, completely naked. I gave her a massage, and I got stunt money for it; terrific. All my mates were so jealous; they’d have paid just to be in the room watching!