With days away from Beckham‘s debut, Fisher Stevens, the creator of the upcoming David Beckham documentary, opened up about how he got the director’s gig for the project. Known for playing Hugo Baker on HBO’s Succession, Steven is also pretty prominent in the documentary-making field, as he has an Oscar under his belt for producing the 2009 documentary The Cove.
And while Stevens appears like the perfect guy to pull off a docu-series based on David Beckham, surprisingly the director wasn’t initially onboard for the project despite Leonardo DiCaprio’s request.
Succession Writer Urged Fisher Stevens to Take Beckham
Fisher Stevens was the first name that Leonardo DiCaprio recommended to David Beckham for his documentary, which is reasonable considering DiCaprio shares experience working with Stevens. However, the Succession Star wasn’t too fond of the idea of delving into the project for multiple reasons, with one being his adamancy to keep working on Succession. But things changed for the better when Succession writer Jesse Armstrong entered the picture, urging the Palmer Star to reconsider the deal. Stevens told The Guardian:
“I was like: ‘Nah.’ That’s going to be two years of my life and I’d really have to love spending time in that world… “But then the writers, especially Jesse [Armstrong, the creator of Succession], said to me: ‘You cannot not do this. This is a great story.’ I didn’t know the story.”
Following the showrunner’s request, Fisher Stevens eventually took the four-part docuseries under his wings and it’s safe to assume Stevens will do the English Football icon justice.
Fisher Stevens Loved Working With Leonardo Dicaprio on And We Go Green
Before recommending Stevens to David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio joined forces with Fisher Stevens on multiple occasions, crafting two acclaimed documentaries. But working on the second one, And We Go Green, was a more prominent experience following DiCaprio’s passion for electric devices, as Stevens expressed that he loved working with the Oscar Winner. On top of that, the Succession Star didn’t have to worry about DiCaprio’s schedule, as unlike 2016’s Before the Flood, where he was busy with The Revenant, things were much smoother during And We Go Green.
He told Uinterview:
“I love Leo so it was, it was really cool, I didn’t have to worry about his schedule this time so much like Before the Flood, you know he was shooting The Revenant while we were making Before the Flood.”
Following Fisher Steven’s history with Leonardo DiCaprio and his impeccable resume in the field of documentary-making, it’s reasonable to be optimistic about Beckham.
Beckham will hit Netflix on 4 October 2023.
Source: The Guardian, Uinterview
