David Beckham on his new short fashion film: 'I'm not launching an acting career'

1. Tat-watch
In person, the tattoos on Beckham’s arms are so plentiful, they seem less like bodily adornments and more like under-sleeves to his outfit. Which was otherwise very simple: dark grey T-shirt, black jeans, lush and towering quiff of hair. It worked.

2. Comportment
The hand-shaking, cheek-kissing, eye-contact-holding manners on this man are really quite something. Becks for president?

3. The film
It’s a 15-minute-long black-and-white melodrama, shot in Mexico, featuring circus performers, snakes, tarot cards and men in day-of-the-dead-style face paint, with a raspy Spanish voiceover whispering things like: “You are the moth to her flame.” Beckham plays the circus’s daredevil bike rider – complete with handsome Belstaff jackets – and eventually helps rescue the star performer (Katherine Waterston) from her possessive boss (Harvey Keitel).

Alexa Chung, Ciara and Anna Wintour get majestic on the Topshop front row – stylewatch

4. Nerves
Beckham’s first reaction when the idea was mooted was, “a) I can’t act; and b) I would be very nervous doing that,” he says. But director Geremy Jasper manged to convince him he could pull it off. (As did Harvey Keitel, who sent a huge bunch of lilies to his trailer on the first day with a note saying: “It takes a man to give another man flowers.”)

5. Strong and silent
The film’s big inspiration, says Jasper, was Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy in which Clint Eastwood is “a man of few words but many squints”, he says. “So I thought that would be the perfect role for David. It’s a big undertaking to have the camera on you like that, to carry a film. So if he plays this stranger, this mysterious figure, who is always watching then it makes it a little easier. He’s got a good face to watch.” Sure enough, Beckham doesn’t emit a peep, but he emotes pretty strongly via raised eyebrows and soulful stares.

5. Acting
Contrary to recent reports, Beckham says this isn’t the beginning of an acting career. His friend Guy Ritchie “has asked me to be in a couple of things – which I do as fun because I know he’s not going to make me look silly. And I really trust him [which is why I did] The Man from UNCLE and King Arthur. But [acting] is not something I’m looking to go into even though people have said I’m launching my acting career. I’m not, it’s just been a lot of fun and something I’ve really enjoyed.” Shame.

6. Victoria’s view
One critic has already given her view of the film – Beckham’s wife. “She was really impressed,” David says. “But she’s biased.”