It's particularly impressive considering Knightley's soccer experience had been fairly limited up until that point. If I'd trained her from the age of 10 or 11, without a shadow of a doubt, Keira could have been a pro.” KNIGHTLEY HAD SOME SERIOUS SKILLS.Īccording to Simon Clifford, the coach who trained the lead actresses to be believable footballers, by the end of training, Knightley 'could do things some Premier League players can't do. It’s only when I said, ‘We could always use doubles, don’t worry about it,' when the two of them said, ‘No way! We’re definitely going to go for it.’ And they did.” 5. They really had to go through the pain barrier like other athletes in order to excel.

Parminder really damaged her toes and was too scared to the ball in case she broke one. Keira, who plays Jules, got concussions a few times. “I put them into three months solid football training and they had a coach and every day they would in and train,' Chadha told. BOTH PARMINDER NAGRA AND KEIRA KNIGHTLEY DID ALL OF THEIR OWN SOCCER PLAYING. GURINDER CHADHA DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SOCCER.Ĭhadha relied on her co-writers to fill in the blanks of what she didn't know, writing “jargon jargon football jargon,” instead of actual content, into the Beckham script. EVEN THOUGH IT'S NAMED FOR DAVID BECKHAM, THE FILM WAS ACTUALLY INSPIRED BY PLAYER IAN WRIGHT.Ĭhadha said that her initial idea to write a film about “the evolving concept of Britishness” came about when she saw an image of Ian Wright, a black player, wearing the Union Jack flag at the Euro 96 championship. Fortunately they changed their minds before the film was released after writer-director Gurinder Chadha objected. In 2002, studio executives at Fox Searchlight were concerned that Americans wouldn’t know who David Beckham was, and wouldn’t understand what it meant to “bend” a soccer ball. IN AMERICA, IT WAS ALMOST KNOWN AS MOVE IT LIKE MIA. release, and one West End musical adaptation later, here are 18 winning facts about Bend It Like Beckham.

Although the film itself is British, both in its setting and its theme-dealing with immigrant integration in a country with a religious-like devotion to football (what we know as soccer)-it delighted critics and audiences worldwide with its quiet charm and optimism. Five years before David Beckham moved across the Atlantic-and before anyone knew who Keira Knightley was-a low-budget movie about a Punjabi teenager living in Southall who wanted to play soccer became a bona fide international sensation.īend It Like Beckham was a surprise smash, earning more than $76.5 million against a $6 million budget.

Shadow of a doubt picture trivia