Interview withTom Muzila 

Part 3 - The Movie Years

MAWM: What got you into the movies?

Tom: The yogi teacher, Siri dharma knew Steven Seagal and wanted to get us together.  We talked about it and kept in touch.  Steven set up some bodyguarding jobs together.   For the Archbishop Tutu job Bill Ungerman and I were with Tutu and Seagal .  Segal told me about the Warner Brothers film “Above the Law,” and asked me to train him for peak performance.  Sharon Stone was the female lead and Andy Davis was the director. This was filmed in Chicago for 3 months.  We worked in some radical places in Chicago and Steve asked me to be his personal bodyguard.  I also assisted in some choreographing of fight and stunt scenes and was in a few stunt and fight scenes myself.

MAWM: What did you think about Steven Seagal?

Tom: I got intrigued ..Steven was so creative.. I loved his Aikido, which was a first in movies at that time. I then worked on 2 more films with him - Hard to Kill and Under Siege.

MAWM: And then?

Tom: This got me started and I got to network to other opportunities.  I had the opportunities to work with a lot of stunt guys and fight coordinators.  I worked on at least 25 feature films, in different capacities - military technical advisor, stunt action advisor, law or military enforcement advisor, stunt coordinator (10 films), actor - one of the main terrorists in Under Siege “Cates” under the command of Tommy Lee Jones character, who was sent in to kill Segal when he was locked up in a meat locker.  I also doubled with Billy Zane (The Setup – a TV film) and with Christopher Lambert in The Hunted.  I worked on Pam Anderson’s VIP which was a bodyguard series. I did Power Of One with Bill Wallace.

MAWM: How well did the actors you trained do?

Tom: I trained Steven Dorff at Benny The Jet’s gym - Six hours a day. and they got pretty good.  The film was great.