As the title suggests, Netflix's latest high-profile celeb docuseries, Beckham, chronicles the life and career of Goldenballs, née David Beckham, through tumult and triumph. Told across four episodes, it recalls how Becks exploded onto the scene as one of Manchester United's most exciting youth prospects. How he met, and married, one of the most famous women in the world. Then there's that mythic Treble in ‘99, major transfers to Real Madrid and LA Galaxy, and his swan song at PSG.
But with light came oft intolerable shade. Think the aftermath of his red card against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, which saw him hounded by the media and public. At least one bullet was posted to his home, and an effigy wearing his No. 7 shirt hanged outside a London pub.
For director Fisher Stevens, the actor and documentary filmmaker familiar to TV heads for playing Succession's slimy PR guy Hugo, the goal was never to make your run-of-the-mill sports biography. “I told him, I'm not interested in making a Brand Beckham film,” Stevens tells GQ over Zoom. “I want people to know who you are. And he sort of said [he felt the same way] when he was convincing me to do it.”
Here, Stevens speaks to GQ about spending so much time with one of the greatest ball footballers England has ever produced, hanging out with Roy Keane and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and speaking to Beckham about the testier subjects — like his controversial ambassadorship for the Qatar World Cup.
GQ: Why did David choose to make this docuseries now?
Fisher Stevens: I asked the same question. He said two things. “One, I want to make sure that I get to tell my story before someone else does. And I'm in a place now in my life because I can look back and reflect, because I've never really done that.” And I guess he watched a lot of documentaries lately about athletes.
I'm presuming one on the list was The Last Dance.
That was his favourite one, or the one that he referenced. Even though in one way it had a big leg up on us, because it was one season that they could keep cutting back to, which is brilliant. We struggled, like, What's our Last Dance? But we were lucky. I don't think they had thirty hours with Michael Jordan, like I had with David. He was very generous with his time, so that helped.
So that was the reason. The Last Dance, the fact that people are making documentaries now without [the subject's] permission, and that he was 46 when we started, and he was like, “Okay, I'm ready to look back.”
And what I realised about David is he never looks back. He's always moving forward. What makes David run. He's always going ahead. So I think he found it quite difficult, but quite satisfying, to do our sessions.
He can't be used to spending so much time with one interviewer. How was he to begin with, and how did he change across the thirty hours you spent together?
We had a couple of meetings beforehand, so we got to know each other a little bit. I think he was nervous at the beginning. But I have to say, we definitely had a connection, like a trust and a vibe, right from the start. It was one of the reasons I did the job, and I think one of the reasons he was safe doing it with me. He's a really shockingly nice person — I say “shockingly” because he's an icon, but he's very down to earth and grounded when you're with him.
I think my technique in filmmaking is I'm just honest, and I just lay it out. David kind of liked that. He appreciated that. He warmed up more and more as went, but we knew that's how it would go, so we planned the interviews in a structure where we would allow that warm-up, so to speak. I sat down with him over ten times.
It's incredible interview access. Were there any conditions in place — did he have final cut?
He did not have final cut. I told him, I'm not interested in making a Brand Beckham film, I want people to learn who you are. And he sort of said that, when he was convincing me to do it. “I don't think people know who I am. I haven't shown people who I am. So you can help me do that.”
I'd show him stuff, and he'd ask me to change some things, and I wouldn't; he'd ask me to change some things, and I would. Certain things, if it was… I have two young kids, you know, I'm very respectful. But he did not have final cut. That wasn't a condition.
He says in Beckham that he's always been reluctant to speak publicly about the red card at the '98 World Cup. Why now, and why you?
I think he's suppressed it for so long. And you know, you get older and you just get wiser in a certain way. And you want to keep growing as a person. It's another way I relate to making this film with David, is I want to keep growing as a human. And the only way David's going to is if he starts to reflect on his life. The guy had never been to therapy. I know for a fact, after those three-hour sessions, he started to think about stuff, and that's why it took him a long to open up.
Did you ever approach Glenn Hoddle to appear in the docuseries?
Many times.
Yeah? How'd it go?
It didn't go. That's why he's not in the movie. [Laughs.] He wouldn't sit down!
Well, did he just ignore your calls? Was he at all receptive?
We heard that he didn't wanna talk about it. He didn't wanna talk about it. But we tried.
It's a shame, you'd have thought he'd want to reflect on it. There's that very famous clip from immediately after the game — it's in the docuseries — where the interviewer asks, “Has David cost us the game?” And he says, “Of course he has!” And it feels so cruel, looking back on it.
He's an interesting guy. I could do a whole episode on the '98 World Cup, training, and the way that [Hoddle] chose the team, and all that. You get to really nerd out on this stuff when you direct. Read all the books, watch all this footage. But David worshipped him. He waited in line to see him when he was a kid. He had the Hoddle shirt. He styled his game after him.
The way the sequence on Man United's mythic ‘99 Champions League win is cut together is so emotive, so propulsive — it’s like you're watching that game for the first time. How do you go about making such a well-covered event feel novel and dramatic?
Well, you need a great editor, which I had in Michael Harte. And then, I think again, just the fact that I didn't know anything about the game. I brought very fresh eyes to it. And then the other key was the interviews that we could intercut. We have the kit man, Albert. We had Cat, the club secretary. We just got gold. You don't normally see their perspective in a big biopic on David Beckham, but their perspective is real, and beautiful.
How did you find them?
The kit man, David just said, “Look, you should talk to Albert, he knows me pretty well.” And I think [Gary] Neville suggested Cat. She rejected us at first, she was nervous. She didn't want to be on camera. But I loved her.
You have some other great talking heads in there. The one that sticks in mind is when you speak to Roy Keane, and he's just there with a cup of tea and a biscuit. What was he like?
I was scared of him, because he's Roy Keane. I would love to go out with Roy Keane and hang out. He was so funny, and so nice. These are great guys! I mean, what David was so lucky with, and what's so lucky with all of them, is I have to say: Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Roy Keane, Sir Alex… those guys, are great guys. They're uber-intelligent, they're super funny, they've great wit. Paul Scholes I loved! Paul Scholes was not at all what I thought…
What were you expecting from Scholesy?
I just thought he'd… I thought he'd give me two, three-word answers. He was warm. And for me, like Zidane said, one of the greatest players ever to play the game.
Who else surprised you?
I would say Ole [Gunnar Solskjær] because he was so real.
Was he still in management when you interviewed him, or was this post-United?
No, after. And the reason I got Ole is that I was shooting Succession in Norway. He was in this town, Ålesund — not even in Oslo. His kid played for that team, so he was there to see his kid play. It was a year ago. That was just a great, lucky break. And I'd been trying to get the guy in the series for a year.
We were only given the first two episodes by Netflix. Did you eventually ask David about his role as an ambassador for the Qatar World Cup, and the subsequent controversy?
Yeah, I did. And we had it in the movie at one point, but I've got to say, it sort of dated the series. It's like a train going to the end, just kind of going up. And then the controversy is complex, because he played at PSG, and we tried to put it in the PSG section, and it just fell flat. We tried to fit it in a million ways. And David wasn't apologetic about it, but he was very open to discussing it. And we did discuss it.
And again it was like, in England it's important, but in America, and a lot of parts of Europe, they don't even know about it. So I had to make a decision. And then, you know, it's also like, he told me an amazing story about waiting in line to see The Queen when she died. This beautiful story that no one has ever heard, and I didn't put it in either. And that was a great story.
Well, the story of David in the line was very much covered in the UK. It came in the wake of the Qatar controversy—
—so we had a whole section about that, about his tattoos, where I'm like, David, you got a new tattoo last week, what the hell! But again, to just drop these things in, felt like I was trying to fit everything in.
Admittedly I'm speaking from the perspective of being gay, and I was very disappointed with a lot of what happened in Qatar. The way the European teams responded to the limitations put in place by the tournament, the World Cup going ahead in Qatar in the first place. It seems strange to me that David has only publicly responded once or twice, and it seems to me this would have been good space for him to expand on that.
Look, this is something you should ask him. Because look, I'm very political. I have problems with Saudi Arabia. They own Newcastle. They're not great with gay rights. They're not great with human rights. And by the way, my country was not great with a lot of things, either. We had a fascist, you know, we had Trump as president for four years. So when I started doing the Qatar stuff with David, it just started to turn into a different movie.
Beckham is now on Netflix.
