David Beckham has said creating his hit documentary series made him feel “uncomfortable”, as he was forced to discuss “things I’d never spoken about before”.
The football star spoke about the process of making Beckham, which was released on Netflix last year, at the Royal Television Society’s annual conference.
When asked by session presenter Jane Featherstone how he could make an “authentic documentary” about himself with his own Studio 99 firm, he said he worked with a team and a director he knew would push him.
The 49-year-old said it took him a “long time” to say yes to making the series – but once decided, he wanted it to be helmed by someone who would come at it “from a different angle” to the story people may think they know.
“It was really difficult,” Beckham said, of being interviewed for about 50 hours by director Fisher Stevens. “It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I was going to make it… when I retired, I wasn’t ready to talk about my career and talk about what had happened over that time.”
But as he approached the 10-year anniversary of his 2013 retirement from football, he thought: “Maybe this is the right time.”
Beckham said both he and his wife, Victoria, were “nervous” about the idea. “Because as much as people think they know everything about us, [they] don’t really. We don’t really let kind of those doors open to our house… I’m not going to lie, I hated probably almost every moment…”
Beckham said his former Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson, encouraged him not to read headlines at the time
As the audience laughed, the former England and Manchester United star clarified: “I wouldn’t say I hated it. I would just say it was very difficult…
“I’ll go back and say it wasn’t hate, but it was really difficult because there were moments when I was talking about things that I’d never spoken about before.
“This was a time when I was playing in my career and there wasn’t social media. Everything that was said about me, I knew what was being said – but the boss would turn round to me, Sir Alex Ferguson, and say, ‘don’t read the papers today. Do yourself a favour, don’t read the papers, go out there and play’. And that’s really all that I kind of saw.”
Beckham said he did not want to see what was in the series until it was finished. “I didn’t go into the edit. I didn’t see any cuts. I saw the odd clip, but I didn’t see anything. And I just let Fisher have that control.”
Praising Stevens, he said: “Finding the right director took a while… But then when I met Fisher, I was like, okay – this is the man that is going to make me feel really uncomfortable. And I think I had to feel uncomfortable to make the documentary that we made…
“Fisher made me feel uncomfortable from the moment we sat down to talk, to the moment I finished. And I really needed that because I needed a director to come at it from a different angle. Because everyone kind of knows my career and my life and things like that. So I needed someone like him to bring something different out of me.”
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David Beckham speaks to Sky News at documentary premiere
Beckham said watching the series for the first time at the premiere was an “emotional” experience, but he “loved” the result. On Sunday night, the programme picked up the award for outstanding documentary series at the Emmys in the US.
The star also spoke about Victoria Beckham’s upcoming documentary series, announced earlier in the summer, which will chart her career from Spice Girl to fashion designer and beauty entrepreneur.
Asked if he would be giving her “notes” now he has his own documentary behind him, Beckham laughed and replied: “Do you know my wife?”
He continued: “I’m actually really excited about this one with Victoria because she is an amazing woman. She’s a strong, driven, passionate person that has gone from being a Spice Girl, and to be respected in this industry is very, very tough.
“She’s worked hard for the last 17, 18 years on her business and all of a sudden she’s having the success that she really deserves. And no one really sees what she does. No one really sees the amount of work she puts in.
“She’s over everything, from where people sit at the shows to what they wear to everything that goes into her business. She’s over every single piece and I want people to see that.”