Former football star and style icon David Beckham graced the stage at an industry conference in London to talk about how nervous he was about filming his Emmy-winning documentary My first meeting and gets excited about his wife.
He started by giving Jane Featherstone, founder and co-CCO of production company Sister Pictures, a jar of jam. “I made it for our 25th wedding anniversary, this label,” Beckham said, referring to his partner, former Spice Girl Victoria, so this one's called 'Sticky Vicky.'”
“I had to be uncomfortable to make the documentary we made,” he began of the documentary, which took audiences through his career, a hectic life in the spotlight as a Manchester United footballer and a much-publicised relationship with Victoria. My first meeting It was met with critical acclaim when it launched on Netflix.
“It was really emotional,” Beckham said of watching it at the premiere. “It was one of those things where I knew if I could do it, I could do it once… It was really hard,” he said of making the series. “It took me a long time to accept that I could do it, but there were a few reasons why we wanted to do it. During the pandemic, that’s when documentaries really exploded. It was coming up on the 10th anniversary of me retiring and I thought, ‘Maybe this is the right time.’”
She continued: “I can't lie, it made me worried, it made me nervous, it made Victoria nervous. As much as people think they know everything about us, they don't. We don't open our doors to our house, but I knew it was the right time. I wouldn't say I hated it, I would just say it was really hard. We loved the results. But we were talking about things in my career that I'd never talked about before.”
“Do you know my wife?” he said in response to Featherstone, who asked if Victoria was taking notes for her upcoming Netflix documentary series, prompting laughter from the audience. “She’s an extraordinary woman,” he continued. “A strong, driven, passionate person who has gone from being a Spice Girl to being respected in this industry, which is very tough.”
“He's been working hard for the last 17, 18 years on his business and suddenly he's having the success he deserves. Nobody really sees what he does and the amount of work he puts in, he's on top of everything: what people wear, everything that goes into his business, he's on top of every single piece.”
“Again, it was a tough sell to get her to do it, but she’s been a huge part of the process at Netflix… It’s an exciting time because she’s going to do something 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 I wanted to do it eventually. [set up a studio]. “Not to control what we put out there, but something I've always enjoyed. When I retired from the game, I made two documentaries Towards the unknown AND For the love of the gameand I loved the process. So, creating the studio was something that was always in the back of my mind, but I needed the right people to help me build it.”
“Manufacturing 99 From [U.K. soccer team] Manchester United, it was a really special moment for us United fans and players, and then we entered the Save our team moment I loved making.”