Former soccer star and style icon David Beckham graced a London industry conference stage to discuss how nervous he was to film his Emmy-winning documentary Beckham and gush over his wife.
He began by gifting Jane Featherstone, founder and co-CCO of production company Sister Pictures, a pot of marmalade. “I made this for our 25th wedding anniversary, this label,” Beckham said, referencing his partner, ex-Spice Girl Victoria, so this one is called ‘Sticky Vicky’.”
“I had to feel uncomfortable to make the documentary that we made,” he began on the doc, which took audiences through his career as a frenzied life in the spotlight as a footballer for Manchester United and a highly-publicized relationship with Victoria. Beckham was met with critical acclaim when it dropped on Netflix.
“It was quite emotional,” watching it at the premiere, Beckham said. “It was one of those things I knew if I was gonna make it, I was gonna make it once… It was really difficult,” he said of making the series. “It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact I was going to make it but there was a few reasons why we wanted to make it. Through the pandemic, that’s when documentaries really exploded. It was coming up to the 10-year anniversary of my retirement and I thought: ‘Maybe this is the right time.’”
He continued: “I can’t lie, it worried me, it made me nervous, it made Victoria nervous. As much as people think they know everything about us, they don’t really. We don’t open the doors to our house but I knew it was the right time. I wouldn’t say I hated it, I just would say it was very difficult. We loved the results. But we were talking about things in my career that I’d never spoken about before.”
“Do you know my wife?” he said in response to Featherstone, who asked whether Victoria is taking notes for her upcoming documentary series coming to Netflix, prompting audience laughter. “She is an amazing woman,” he continued. “A strong, driven, passionate person that has gone from being a Spice Girl to be respected in this industry which is 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 deserves. No one really sees what she does and the amount of work she does, she’s over everything — what people wear, everything that goes into her business she’s over every single piece.”
“Once again, it was hard to convince her to do this but she was a big part of the process at Netflix… It’s an exciting time because she’s gonna do something that’s very special and people are going to see her personality and her work ethic,” he added.
Beckham was also asked about plans for his new content studio, Studio 99, which was a key player in the Netflix documentary. “I’m very proud to be here today,” he began, before saying: “I knew that eventually I wanted to do [set up a studio]. “Not to control what we put out there but something that I’ve always enjoyed. When I retired from playing, I made two documentaries Into the Unknown and For the Love of the Game, and I loved the process. So setting up the studio is something I always had in my mind but I needed the right people to help me build that.”
“Making 99 about [U.K. soccer team] Manchester United, it was such a special moment for us as United fans and United players, and then we went into the Save Our Squad moment which I loved making.”