David Beckham might be kicking off a new career. The famously handsome soccer star is making his second major appearance in a blockbuster film, following up his cameo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with a turn in another Guy Ritchie film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Unlike the athlete's previous time on the big screen, where Ritchie did his best to make Beckham unrecognizable, the David Beckham cameo in King Arthur is pretty memorable for showing the star looking different, yes, but still pretty damn attractive.
When Ritchie cast Beckham as Trigger in King Arthur, though, he had one goal: to make the soccer star and model unappealing. "The idea was to make him distractingly unpleasant to look at," Ritchie said in an interview with Access Hollywood. He wanted Beckham to be almost unrecognizable, as he had been in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. So, in the new film, the athlete appears with mangled teeth and an extreme facial scare.
However, it still wasn't enough to hide Beckham's natural beauty. "I knew I'd failed because while I was directing him, I had a girl on the right hand side of me who was sort of thinking out loud and said, 'I'd still bang him,'" Ritchie said in that same interview. It's true that it's pretty impossible to mistake Beckham for anyone else in the film. (The soccer pun about "bouncing on my knee" doesn't really help disguise him.) But Ritchie's loss is our gain, and I'm certain the audience will thank him for not messing with Beckham's face too much.
Fans of Beckham will no doubt be thrilled to see him in a fantasy film, but not everyone is a fan of his cameo in King Arthur. On May 9, just days before the film hits theaters, Piers Morgan criticized Beckham's accent and acting ability on Good Morning Britain. "It's Oscar-level excellent," he said, sarcastically, via The Sun. "Will David Beckham be able to make it in Hollywood? Probably not." Morgan, who has publicly feuded with Beckham in the past, didn't stop there. He then imitated one of Beckham's line in the film, and ended the segment with one final jab. "Well done David Beckham, you're a brilliant actor. The Oscars are looming." Sounds to me like someone is a little jealous he didn't get the phone call to appear in a Ritchie film.
Even with a high profile hater, it would be surprising if this were Beckham's last outing on the big screen. Maybe next time he'll get to look like the handsome devil he is.
