David Beckham Documentary Director Fisher Stevens on the Soccer Star’s ‘Operatic’ Life, ‘Inner Turmoil’

K.J. Yossman There’s no better way to encapsulate David Beckham’s unbridled star power than the story of how Fisher Stevens ended up directing his Netflix docuseries “Beckham.” “I got a call from Leo DiCaprio’s office,” recalls Stevens, who directed the DiCaprio-produced 2016 climate change film “The Flood.” “Leo and David were hanging out, and David [had] been looking for a director of his documentary — and Leo suggested me.” The anecdote doesn’t end there. Stevens, a multi-hyphenate who won an Oscar for producing the 2009 dolphin documentary “The Cove,” and appeared on three seasons of HBO’s hit series “Succession” as Waystar Royco publicist Hugo, wasn’t sure he wanted to take on the job directing the Beckham project.

“I didn’t really know much about him other than, you know, he was kind of a good-looking brand guy married to a Spice Girl,” he tells Variety. So Stevens did what anyone might when faced with a career dilemma — he asked some colleagues for advice. The colleagues in question just happened to be “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong and writer Tony Roche (both British) who had watched Beckham’s stratospheric rise in real-time.

“They’re like: ‘You have to do a documentary — you have to do it!’” Which is how Stevens ended up spending more than 30 hours interviewing David Beckham over the course of two years. “I definitely felt like I was his therapist,” Stevens admits. “Nothing was really off limits,” he says of the conversations, all caught on camera.

“I felt like I could have gone anywhere.” The result is an epic four-part series which drops on Netflix today, charting David Beckham’s arc from working class kid to global celebrity. “This guy, his life was so operatic and so big,” says Stevens. “My