Last Night in New York, A Celebration of Beckham With Filmmaker Fisher Stevens—And a Surprise Guest!
What are the odds? That was the question swirling around the Whitby Hotel in New York City last night, where Anna Wintour (global editorial director, Vogue and chief content officer, Condé Nast) and Will Welch (global editorial director of GQ) welcomed guests to celebrate Beckham—the documentary recounting the life and career of football star David Beckham, directed by actor and director Fisher Stevens. Coincidentally, tennis great Roger Federer was at the Whitby, too, debuting his documentary, Federer: Twelve Final days; the theatre just so happened to be booked back-to-back—it was like Barbenheimer, but for sports documentaries.
The Beckham event kicked off with a welcome from Wintour, a longtime friend of the footballer and his wife, Victoria Beckham. “He is generous and he is kind and he is thoughtful,” Wintour said. “A boy from humble beginnings with an extraordinary gift who became world famous but never let it go to his head.”
Before a crowd that included Fisher’s Succession costars Kieran Culkin, Nicholas Braun, Juliana Canfield, and David Rasche—as well as Francesco Carrozzini, Gina Gershon, Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman, Emily Adams Bode Aujla, Tyrod Taylor and Evan Mock—Welch moderated a discussion between Stevens and Beckham, highlighting seminal clips from the four-part documentary.
“A lot of people wanted me to make a documentary for many years but I didn’t feel like it was the right time,” Beckham said of the project. When he did feel ready, as he was nearing ten years post-retirement, “it was all about piecing the team together and putting the right director in and making sure I was surrounded with people that could jog my memory.”
Enter Stevens. “I’d never heard of the guy,” Stevens joked about being approached for the film. Though a sports fan, Stevens admitted that the magnitude of Beckham’s talent and celebrity had escaped him—until he brushed up on the star’s legacy at the insistence of his Succession colleagues. “I started looking at David’s life and I was like, ‘wow, it’s an incredible life,’ Stevens said, adding that watching Beckham play was “magical.”
The night was marked by laughs—and a few sentimental moments—as clips from the documentary rolled in the Whitby theater. Attendees watched footage of Beckham parsing through his impeccably-organized closet (“I’m a very tidy person,” he said) and scenes of the backlash he faced following his infamous ejection from the 1998 World Cup game between England and Argentina. “[Stevens] made me feel so at ease,” Beckham said. “I was able to share things I had never talked about before.” Of course, no celebration of the film would be complete without addressing the now-viral exchange between David and Victoria, during which he insists that she “be honest” about her not-so-humble upbringing and admit that her father owned a Rolls Royce. “The moment she said ‘working class’ I was like, ‘I’ve got you’,” Beckham said of the clip.
“My biggest achievement in my career and my life is my family,” Beckham said, just before the festivities moved from the theater to a reception space for cocktails and small bites.
Enter Federer. After a quick photo opp with Wintour and Beckham, it was Federer s turn in the theater to fête his doc. Though it was originally meant to be a personal project to share with family and friends, he said, once filming was underway, he knew that the footage was special. “It would be a pity to keep it only for myself,” he shared with his audience, which included Leon Robinson, Josh Okogie, Joe Sabia, Alexandre Arnault, and Frederic Arnault. “My fans, especially, should get to see it.” They will when Federer: Twelve Final Days premieres on June 20 and Amazon Prime. Beckham is available now on Netflix.
Photo: Norman Jean Roy2/24Roger Federer, Anna Wintour, David Beckham
