I’m in north London with my husband and 12-year-old twins. The twins rule the roost. It’s hard work, bloody home-schooling. The amount of printer ink I’ve gone through! I have managed to write a whole new movie script in lockdown, which I’m thrilled about. I feel too slovenly to watch TV in the daytime, so I still haven’t caught up on all the amazing series I’ve recorded, including Killing Eve and Homeland.
After dinner, it’s whatever the kids want to watch. One of our favourite shows is Pen15, although we have to talk loudly through the inappropriate bits. It’s about the pains of high school for two grown women who play themselves acting 13 with a cast of 13-year-old kids, and it’s one of the funniest shows on TV. The kids also love Fresh Off the Boat, so we’re all rocking the old-school hip-hop vibe, and a go-to is always Modern Family.
We’re trying to educate our kids, so on the weekends we’ve been sitting down with some classic movies. We watched Car Wash and I’ve now realised that the film’s ensemble cast, comedy, social comment and blinding soundtrack have inspired every movie I’ve made.
We’ve loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Queen & Slim. We loved Knives Out, which gave our son a taste for thrillers, so he’s been watching Money Heist. I tried to watch an episode but it made me too anxious. I was like, “I can’t cope with this” and switched over to The A Word but my son said it was too boring because he was too souped up from playing Call of Duty and watching Money Heist. So now he’s banned from gaming for a bit.
My daughter loves Bring It On and Pitch Perfect. We watch The Greatest Showman over again. We love a good musical. When the kids have gone to bed, I like to wind down with a good music documentary on Sky Arts or BBC Four whilst my husband is asleep on the sofa. I loved the stories of the Jam and the Hollies. My husband then gets up early to watch all the basketball docs on Netflix. He cried during the Michael Jordan series The Last Dance.
Lionsgate is showing a live stream of Bend It Like Beckham tomorrow. I’ll be commentating on Instagram Live. It really hasn’t dated, apart from David Beckham having become a middle-aged family man. I’ve heard that the US team, the Women’s World Cup champions, all got into soccer after watching the film. I’ve been told that the England women’s squad know the dialogue by heart. Whenever it’s on, people like to tweet along, one of the most popular lines being: “Get your lesbian feet out of my shoes.”
Stream Bend It Like Beckham for free on YouTube as part of Lionsgate Live, 6pm BST on Saturday 16 May
