Almost two years to the day after David Beckham‘s “Beckham” docuseries landed on Netflix to critical acclaim and — later — an Emmy award, the other A-list head of Britain’s unofficial royal family is ready to tell her story.
The three-part “Victoria Beckham” — landing on Netflix Oct. 9 — turns the cameras fully on the Spice Girl turned fashion designer (and, arguably, the breakout star of “Beckham” for her instantly viral “My Dad Had a Rolls Royce” moment, a line she promptly printed on T-shirts now selling on her online store for $150).
But while her husband’s series was very much a reflection over more than 30 years of football, family and fame (and — almost — everything that came with it), Victoria’s is more about the now — following her as she prepares for her most ambitious fashion show to date in Paris and the last-minute chaos threatening to derail it. But the docuseries doesn’t shy away from an emotional, vulnerable and at times extremely painful look back at the past. As part of explaining why she is the woman she is today, Victoria opens up in a way not seen before on camera, discussing her own personal health struggles, being hounded by the media as a young mother and the ridicule she faced from as she battled to reinvent herself from a fashion world that would eventually embrace her.
Like “Beckham,” Victoria’s docuseries is produced by David Beckham’s own Studio 99 and also has an American behind the lens, this time Nadia Hallgren, best known for her Emmy-nominated feature doc “Becoming” about Michelle Obama. For producer BIllie Shepherd, the style of the show — capturing Victoria’s story while she continued to lead a fast-paced, high-pressured life and further her career — was what led them to Hallgren. “Nadia’s vérité shooting is incredible — it’s really second nature to her,” she says.
“Making these shows, you have to really build trust to help find the most authentic version of the subject — it’s like, how can we make them feel themselves? — and Nadia really had that mindset,” adds Julia Nottingham of Dorothy St. Pictures, which produces in association with Studio 99. “When Nadia and Victoria immediately connected on their first meeting, we all breathed a sigh of relief — it felt like our matchmaking was correct.”
As a New Yorker, Hallgren admits she “didn’t know anything” about the Beckhams until she saw David’s series, but was immediately intrigued. But she says getting someone famed for having meticulous control over her own personal brand to open up wasn’t easy. “The whole process with Victoria was letting go and her being extremely uncomfortable with that,” he said. “It was like, how do I help push her out of her comfort zone?”
Speaking to Variety, Hallgren discusses dealing with comparisons to the “Beckham” doc, why Victoria is one of the “funniest people” she’s ever met, the decision to not include the rumored feud with Brooklyn Beckham and the surprising similarities between the former WAG and former First Lady.
You’ve obviously spent enough time in the U.K. making this to appreciate that a show about Victoria Beckham is likely to generate a bit of noise. Are you ready for that?
Yeah, I love that part of it. It’s fun. Getting the chance to spend time with her and David has been a great experience, so now the other part of the great experience is letting other people see it and starting that conversation.
How was it spending so much time in the world of the Beckhams?
Honestly, they’re really nice people — very warm and really kind. It was fun getting to know them. I think most of us have gotten to know David, whether personally or otherwise, especially through his Netflix series. I’m American, born and raised in New York City, so the Beckhams have a different place in my pop cultural zeitgeist. I hadn’t thought about the Beckhams, maybe ever, until I saw David’s series. It was great and such a well-made show. But definitely Victoria was the standout in terms of entertainment, vulnerability, depth and really bringing that story to another level. She caught my attention when I first saw the series, so a year or two later when I got a call asking if I’d be interested in working with her on her series, I was like, “Oh, wow.” She just sparked my curiosity in a way that was undeniable.
Did Victoria have to approve you as director?
I spoke to a couple of people, but then I was told that Victoria wanted to meet me in person, and I wanted to meet her in person too. Because I think just like any great partnership, you don’t really fully know the chemistry until you’re in the room. She happened to be coming to New York City so we met for an hour, and that was pretty much the deciding factor. I think we both felt like it was something that could be a good match.
I understand she had to be persuaded quite heavily to do this — it wasn’t her idea.
Yeah, and she expressed that to me. Victoria’s been so private for so long that she’s not a natural over-sharer, someone that just puts it all out there. Even with the experience of making “Beckham,” it was challenging for her to be emotional on camera, to be so raw and have so many people see that side of her. Some people are just like, “Make a film about me!” But she was very much like, “I’m considering this if it’s the right person, the right circumstances.”
Did you have any preconceived opinions of her going into this?
Absolutely not. And I think that was kind of a great thing. I didn’t grow up in Spice Girl madness on the U.S. side. I’m probably maybe a little bit older. But I didn’t know anything about her. Soccer isn’t really a sport that I ever really connected with, so it’s not like I even really knew much about David.
When you were talking to Victoria in those early stages, what did she say to you about what she wanted to get out of the doc and how it should look and feel?
Those were some of the very first questions I asked her. I was just trying to understand where she was in this moment, 50 years old, and living a life that is very different in many ways than how we knew her as a Spice Girl, and being an adult and having this perspective on her past and how she got to where she is now. But also the moment right now for her is everything that she’s built up to and has dreamed of doing. For me, as a documentary filmmaker, and I think even in my personal life, I have a deep interest in self-discovery and that human experience. And how at these different times in our lives, these particular moments make us think deeper about who we are, who we were and where we want to go. So a big part of our conversation was around that. She was excited about getting to know herself better through this process.
Victoria is obviously someone who has been fiercely protective of her and her family’s image. In the U.K., the Beckhams effectively created the notion of “controlling the narrative.” How was it as a documentarian, with a strong idea of what you wanted to make, working with someone known for being very controlling about what we see and read about her?
I think this is what was different about the series. I think she was willing to let go. I needed to know that the person that’s engaging in this process to make a documentary, to tell their story, is also willing to let go and surrender in a way — which is a really hard thing to do, and it’s a hard thing to ask someone to do. But there has to at least be a willingness going in. The whole process with Victoria was letting go and her being extremely uncomfortable with that, but still doing it right. I think it’s good that she felt uncomfortable. You want people to be uncomfortable when they’re making a documentary — it was like, how do I help push her out of her comfort zone? But you have to want to be pushed out your comfort zone. So it’s this thing that you do together. It’s like, we push a little more and we push a little more and we push a little more, and then we get the results that we got, which was a Victoria Beckham that was very willing to talk about things that she hadn’t talked about before and express things, be emotional, be vulnerable.
She says in the series that the minute she sees a camera, she changes and the armor comes up. How easy was it to pierce that?
We did it, but it definitely was not easy. But that’s the process. When I started filming with Michelle Obama on “Becoming,” it was her very first time in public after Trump was elected — she was no longer a First Lady. Imagine what that experience was like for her. So I definitely enter people’s lives often in a place where they’re not comfortable that there’s a camera around them all day and they’re having a life-changing experience. I wouldn’t let someone do that to me. So I have a deep compassion and sympathy for people who are letting me in.
This Victoria series obviously comes off the back of David’s series, which was a huge success for Netflix and won an Emmy. Was there any pressure from her for this to be as successful?
I think Victoria and I share this willingness to take risks and know that we may be measured against something. But that’s OK, because we believe that it could be as good. It’s completely different, too. I think that’s the thing. The style of this series is very different from the David series. We are in the moment with Victoria. We are in the now. And a really important part of her story is happening right now and was happening when we were filming. Obviously there’s always going to be people maybe making a comparison, or thinking about his doc and how that was made. But ultimately the ingredients are very different. This is a vérité film in many ways.
And it’s very knowing about what it is. One of the first things she says is in response to David making a terrible joke and saying, “He thinks this is going to be his moment in the documentary, but this about me.” So it did seem like: you’ve done your show, now it’s my turn.
Which is so much fun with Victoria, because she is so self aware. But in a way that is really charming. She’s so sharp, and her timing is great, and her humor and knowing how to land things — like that opening. It’s really fun. As soon as I started filming with her, I was like, “Oh, this is going to be different.”
Without giving any spoilers away, one of the key takeaways from the series is just how funny she is.
She’s incredibly funny. The first day I met her, that was one thing that really drew me to her. I remember leaving that meeting and saying, well, I hope she picks me, because I just had such a raw experience with her. It was funny, it was vulnerable, it was deep, it was superficial. You know, it was almost like sitting with a friend that you know really well. Yeah, she is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.
David’s show created a few memes which are still very much in circulation — especially the one with Victoria, which she then printed on a t-shirt and sold. Was there any pressure — externally or even just from yourself — to create some similar moments that might go viral?
I’m not gonna say there was not some outside pressure. But Victoria delivers, so we’ll see what audiences pick up on.
When you do dive into the archive material, some of what was said and written about Victoria that you highlight was absolutely appalling. Were you shocked at the state of British tabloid culture and what people could openly say about other people?
I think now we’re really familiar with British tabloid culture through other documentaries or books about it. But this was the first time I experienced it on what felt like a personal level through Victoria. When we started filming this, my daughter was a year-and-a-half. She’s my first child, so knowing what it’s like so early, when your life is changing and all the things that are happening and to know that when Victoria was 25 and had Brooklyn she had those horrible comments being made about her. She faced such scrutinization and was being judged in such an unkind way — people were being mean for no reason. I think I was more emotional than Victoria was looking back at that stuff — I think she’s really built up her own mechanisms to not let it keep affecting her. But it affected her at the time very deeply. I had a lot of compassion for the 25-year-old Victoria, but then also really started to understand how the Victoria today came to be. Because when you go through those experiences, you have to find ways to cope.
One of the comments made about her on TV — which is a clip you show — is incredibly nasty. Was she OK with you using that? It still must hurt.
It probably wasn’t easy. I think anyone looking back at that time in their lives, when something is so painful it reopens those wounds. But she was OK with it. She was like, if I’m going to tell the story, I need to tell the whole story. So she never suggested we not use anything.
Because this is the Beckhams, a fair amount of the conversation is probably going to be about what’s not in the documentary. For example, David’s alleged infidelities and the impact that had on Victoria isn’t brought up. Why was the decision made not to tackle that subject?
When I met Victoria, the things that stood out to me was who this woman is now in this moment in her life, and how she’s evolved as a person and that self-discovery. And there were so many topics that were covered in David’s series. Part of it was like, well, we don’t want to tell those stories. We want to do something that’s fresh and interesting. So it was intentional on my part to not repeat some stories that were either told in the Beckham series or that I didn’t think were important to Victoria’s story right now.
You also didn’t include the so-called family feud between Victoria and Brooklyn Beckham in the series. This is a story that must have erupted while you were making the doc. As a documentary maker, when something like that happens in the middle of making a documentary, did you not push for it to be included in some way?
We did film Brooklyn at the Paris fashion show. But something that we always did was film what was happening with Victoria. We didn’t contrive moments and things like that. So when the kids were around, they were around, and if they weren’t around, they weren’t around. It’s also important for me as a person and as a filmmaker to just be respectful to people that I make films with.
But was there a conversation about whether or not to include it, given its timeliness?
I never talked to Victoria about including anything beyond what we filmed with her family in the show.
Is there any fear that, by not including it, it might look like it’s been carefully stage-managed on her part?
I think audiences or the press may want to speculate or talk about that. But as the director I have to make really specific decisions on the show that I want to make. And that’s what I did in this series.
Were there any restrictions at all or any areas that were no-go zones?
There weren’t any restrictions. We talk about some of the most difficult parts of Victoria’s life, truly. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but I think we did a pretty good job of identifying those moments as well as her sharing with me what some of those moments were. We have a really great range of highs and lows. Victoria has gone through a lot in her life. She was willing to pretty much go anywhere that I thought was important. I can’t say it was always easy pushing someone out of their comfort zone, and especially someone as private as Victoria. The point is that it’s a process, and we get there eventually.
Did Victoria have any final say on the edit?
She did not have final say on the edit. Her and I had definitely talked about my idea during the process. We developed that relationship. But she didn’t have final cut.
The series builds up to Victoria’s fashion show in Paris, which is a great success. I think the cynic out there might suggest it seems a little contrived to end this way. But you shot that right at the start and there was a chance it might not have been the success it was. Was that a fear or something that was discussed?
Whenever you make a verité film where you don’t know what will happen, you take an incredible leap of faith. Because it’s always like: how’s this gonna end? We just didn’t know the ending. When I started filming, it was all new to me — I didn’t know Victoria and the family yet. We got so lucky that they were so kind and allowed us to film and be themselves in these really difficult moments when they’re trying to put on a show. And then as the days and the weeks went by, I just noticed myself being like, “Oh man, I really hope this works out.” I just started rooting for them. I was personally invested. And I just remember, by the time we were backstage, the models were lining up, the rain had maybe stopped, and we didn’t know what was going to happen, I was like, “Please let this go well.” And I knew in that moment that we had a show. If you’re feeling emotional and you’re getting goosebumps, you know. And then, when it went the way it went, I thought, “We have an ending.”
On the face of it, I think few people would compare Victoria Beckham to Michelle Obama. But they are obviously both successful women who’ve spent years in the public eye and are fiercely scrutinized by the press and public. Did you go into this thinking there were similarities or did you find similarities between them as you went on?
Their life experiences are incredibly different. But they are fiercely driven women, highly successful and capable in their own right, who marry men who are incredibly charismatic and loved by the world, who get taken on a different trajectory because of that marriage, but who are working to understand themselves and their position in the world through this journey that they don’t entirely have control over. What I learned on “Becoming” with Michelle Obama changed the way I would forever understand that particular series of events in a woman’s life.
What do you think people, especially those who have known the Beckhams for so long, will come away from this doc thinking about Victoria?
I think it’s human nature to want to be understood. So I hope that people can understand Victoria a bit more, just who she truly is. She’s Victoria Beckham, but she’s also a warm person. She’s a kind person. She’s someone who’s shown a tremendous amount of resilience, she’s so smart, she’s a great business woman and she’s a fighter, for sure.
It ends with her and David at their home in the Cotswolds, with David talking about his bees. I’m pretty sure that’s how the “Beckham” series ends. Was that a little hat tip to that show?
I think that the two shows are in conversation with each other. We love the “Beckham” series, and I’m a huge fan of Fisher Stevens and what he did. And you know that I learned so much about Victoria through that series. So that’s my homage.
Did you manage to get any Victoria Beckham merch?
Actually, I have a cool story. The time we filmed in her store, we were just walking and there was this beautiful suit on the rack. And I was like, “Oh my God, that’s beautiful.” It was just a second and we kept going. Fast forward a couple of months and I actually had to spend my birthday in London filming. It just happened that way. Victoria recognized it and was like, “I know how hard it is to be away from your family on your birthday so I’m super appreciative that you came here to do this.” And she said she wanted to give me something and hands me a box. And it was the suit. She gifted me this beautiful tuxedo for my birthday — and also because she knew that I was going to the Oscars two weeks later. I remember when I opened the box, she was so emotional seeing my reaction and how special it was to me. Victoria’s love language is dressing people.