Victoria Beckham’s sense of humour was a gift in new docuseries, says director

Lady Victoria Beckham’s sense of humour was a “gift” while filming the new Netflix documentary series about her life, director Nadia Hallgren has said.

The three-part series shows Lady Beckham preparing for a fashion show in Paris and the events that led to the establishment of her eponymous fashion label in 2008, having started as a singer in the Spice Girls.

Hallgren said she was “intrigued” at the prospect of filming a documentary about Lady Beckham, 51, despite the fact she “didn’t really live in my world culturally”.

“Any time with Victoria was funny, her comedic timing is brilliant,” she said.

“Any time Victoria is with her family was the best, in terms of that’s when all the guards go down and she’s truly herself.

“I mean they roast her so hard and tease her but they’re the most loving family.

“You feel like that’s a family you want to be a part of, and so any time they were all together, it was just fun.

“Those moments with Harper, you know, it’s also amazing to see Harper at 13 years old now, and she’s a lovely young woman, and Victoria, a Spice Girl, one of the most famous pop stars in the world and her daughter is like: ‘God, not those moves, mum!’

“That was always really fun and the hardest thing is not laughing too hard behind camera of course, because you don’t want to be distracting!”

Lady Beckham is married to former England footballer Sir David Beckham and they have four children: Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.

The series follows the release of Netflix series Beckham in 2023, which saw the Spice Girl-turned-designer address the speculation that her husband allegedly had an affair while he was playing for Real Madrid in 2003.

Hallgren said: “Her (Beckham’s) sense of humour is a gift, right? Because we’re also here to entertain.

“I try to tell stories, deep stories, meaningful stories, stories of really interesting, big characters and everything it takes to exist in that space.

“But for someone to be funny and to nail it and to do that, I was, like, ‘this is a gift’.

“She’s self-deprecating, she’s so self-aware, has great comedic timing. You see where she gets it from, her mum is really funny and has a great sense of humour, and so you can see it’s not a show.

“It’s part of who she is, it’s her identity. And so I said: ‘This is a gift that we have to use in every way possible.'”

Also explored in the series is the scrutiny Lady Beckham has faced surrounding her appearance and weight, including when she was weighed on TV months after giving birth to Brooklyn.

In the documentary, Sir David says: “People felt that it was okay to criticise a woman for her weight, for what she’s doing, for what’s she’s wearing, there were a lot of things happening in TV then that won’t happen now, that can’t happen now.”

Hallgren said: “I was so surprised. Again, being American and not paying much attention to that stuff previously, as we started to explore that archive as well as just my conversations with Victoria, I remember one time I got emotional, and I’m not one to really get emotional, it was just hard to imagine someone being treated that way.

“Beyond being wealthy and famous, she, especially during that time, was a fragile young woman who had just had a baby, who had just had a lot of events happen in her life that were completely out of her control.”

Victoria Beckham launches on Netflix on October 9.