10 Things We Learned at the ’Air’ Press Conference with Cast and Crew
Moviefone attends the press conference for ’Air.' Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Viola Davis, among others, discuss their new film about Michael Jordan's Nike deal.
(L to R) Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan in 'Air.' Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios. © Amazon Content Services LLC.
Biopics of well-known figures often struggle with condensing the lives of their subjects. But part of the brilliance of the very entertaining ‘Air,’ which reunites director-star Ben Affleck and good friend Matt Damon on screen, is the manner in which it smartly sidles up to a legendary figure — in this case basketball star and all-around icon Michael Jordan — and tells a very specific story that manages to illuminate not only an important time period in his life, but a broader moment in American culture.
You see, ’Air’ tells an origin story, of sorts. Instead of a caped superhero, though, it’s about the unlikely genesis of Air Jordans — the shoe line which would come to dominate not only hoops culture but global business at large, presently racking up more than $5 billion in annual sales.
Based on the true tale of Nike’s attempts to woo Jordan to sign an exclusive shoe contract before he’s ever suited up and played a game of professional basketball, the movie stars Damon as Sonny Vaccaro, the sports marketing executive and longtime hoops scout who pushes Nike chairman and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) to abandon the standard practice of spreading around endorsement deals, and instead put all their effort into signing one player he believes has the potential to be a star. Viola Davis and real-life husband Julius Tennon portray Deloris and James Jordan, the hoops legend’s loving parents.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of attending a pair of virtual press conferences for ’Air,’ along with several other outlets. In attendance in one interview session were Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Chris Messina, and Matthew Maher, while the second session of the double-tilt featured Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Marlon Wayans, and screenwriter Alex Convery.
Here are 10 things we learned from the ’Air’ press conference, edited for clarity and length.
Ben Affleck as Phil Knight in 'Air.' Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios. © Amazon Content Services LLC.
1. Ben Affleck Was Going to Walk Away From the Film If Michael Jordan Asked Him To
Ben Affleck is a Golden Globe Best Director winner, so his commitment behind the camera would be enough to get movies of a certain budget made. But his commitment to ‘Air’ wasn’t absolute.
Ben Affleck: I went to speak to Michael, because I’ve been lucky enough to run across him a few times. I’m not gonna act like me and him are friends. I just like idolized the guy, and every now and again I’ve had a chance to spend time with him. It’s been very memorable for me, though probably he’s forgotten it. But I had at least enough of an in to say, “Hey, can I come see you and just run this past you?” Because to be honest, from a point-of-view of respect for him, his family, who he is, and what he means, the stupidest thing in the world would be to go make a movie that, (even though) he doesn’t appear in, nonetheless invokes his name and tells a part of his story, if he was opposed to. So if he said don’t do it, I just was gonna not do it. That would be that. And I was very, very prepared for that to be the result of (our conversation), because I had no reason to think he would be open to it or that he would welcome it. However, what I found was that he was very gracious when I said, look, this is not historically accurate, in the sense that I can’t dot every I and cross every T — this is gonna have to be something of a fable, a parable, an inspiring story. So I’m gonna take liberties in order to make it an hour and 30 or 40 minutes, but I don’t wanna violate anything that’s fundamentally important or true to you. So if you would please tell me what those things are, I promise you they’ll be sacrosanct. And I think it was telling that he wasn’t somebody who was like, “Whoa, we gotta talk about when I did this, and I did that,” (because) there are people who take that approach. He only talked about other people. He wanted to make sure that other people who were meaningful were included in the story. George Raveling was one of them. Then he also said Howard White is integral to this too.
Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro in Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
2. Screenwriter Alex Convery Watched ’The Last Dance’ Just Like You
The 10-episode Netflix docu-series ‘The Last Dance’ was a huge hit during the early months of the COVID pandemic. And in fact it birthed the idea for ‘Air.’
Alex Convery: I’m a ’90s Chicago kid, which is where the Bulls and Michael Jordan and my connection comes from. But like everyone else, I was locked up during those first couple of months of quarantine, watching ‘The Last Dance.’ There’s a little five-minute clip about Nike and just how Air Jordans came together. And I was at a point in my career where, you know, you’re trying to write a script that gets noticed. So when you can explain the movie in one sentence — it’s a story of how Nike got Michael Jordan — it has that ability, you know? It goes to the top of the pile, and maybe people will give it a bit more of a chance. But like everything, it comes down to characters, right? So the question was, who can be the protagonist and the engine of this movie? And finding both Sonny and Deloris was really, to me, what elevated it above just a movie about a shoe and Michael Jordan. It’s finding the human elements in a very big movie. I call them “big little movies.” The little (part) being, this is just a movie about a shoe deal, right? It takes place over a week or so, and it’s small in scope, but the big part is when you say it’s about Nike and Michael Jordan. You could talk to 100 people on the street, and all 100 of them are going to know who Michael Jordan is and what Nike is. And to me, that’s what kind of elevates it above just a movie about a shoe.
Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan in 'Air.' Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios. © Amazon Content Services LLC.
3. Michael Jordan Asked For Viola Davis To Play His Mother
The hoops G.O.A.T. had some casting advice for Ben Affleck, rooted in his strong relationship to his mother Deloris.
Ben Affleck: (Michael) said, "You know, I didn’t wanna go to Portland. I would’ve signed my shoe rights away for life for a red Mercedes. My mom told me to go to Beaverton.” And when I saw how he talked about his mother — the regard and esteem in which he held her, the reverence and respect and adoration and love when he talked about his mother — it just shocked me, and shame on me for not kind of assuming this was the case. But when I heard it, I realized right away this is the story — and a beautiful story. It’s a story about Deloris Jordan and what she means to Michael, and that she’s emblematic of what so many mothers must have meant to so many athletes and entertainers and people in this business who are oftentimes very young and thrust into a world of fame and money that can be confusing, and must require enormous amounts of guidance. So I thought, actually this is brilliant. This is what the story is. This is beautiful, and this is the protagonist. And I said offhandedly (to Michael), who do you think should play your mom? And he said it has to be Viola Davis. I was like, okay. That’s kind of like saying, “Can I get a basketball team together? Sure. It has to (have) Michael Jordan.” You’re like, well, all right. (laughs) But then I thought, you know, this is very typical of who this guy is. Like, it has to be the very best, absolutely. So I knew that it was incumbent on us to create a role that was worthy of Viola, and we tried to do that.
Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan in 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
4. Viola Davis Found Her Character In a Preternatural Steadiness
Michael Jordan is famously one of the most competitive and intense athletes of all time. His mother Deloris, though, had a different defining characteristic.
Viola Davis: Stepping into the role, if you watch videos, Deloris Jordan is a study in Zen neutrality. The woman is very, very steady and quiet, you know? I mean, I would imagine that even when she gets mad, she’s probably very, very, very steady. (laughs) So to really just envelope that spirit and everything was a challenge for me, because I’m the woman who always has a chip on her shoulder. I go in bombastic, you know? So it was both flattering, challenging, and then just a joy to work with Matt and Ben and all these terrific actors. Me and Julius still talk about it to this day, as just one of the greatest experiences.
(L to R) Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser in 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballosa. © Amazon Content Services LLC.
Related Article: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Team up for Nike Movie
5. As With a Lot of Interesting Stories, ’Air’ Surprisingly Reframes a Known Character or Entity
With annual revenue in excess of $45 billion, Nike is the undisputed giant of the footwear and athletic apparel industry. But not in ‘Air.’
Matt Damon: We were really trying to capture the spirit of these people in this time more than anything — not exactly who said what at exactly what moment. All of these people on the Nike side, independent of one another, have talked about this time with such nostalgia. And that’s what we were trying to create and remind people about, you know? They were the underdog, which is such a weird way to think of Nike now. But before this incredible deal, they really were these renegades, and kind of outsiders. And so it really is one of those stories that comes along and you go, “Wow, this is really for everybody.” We used to call them feel-good movies. You should leave the theater with, like, a skip in your step.
(L to R) Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan and Julius Tennon as James Jordan in 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
6. The Sensitivity Modeled in Deloris and James Jordan’s Relationship Mirrors Viola Davis’ Real-Life Relationship
In real life, James Jordan modeled a quiet strength, preferring to let his wife Deloris handle most of the talking. But he stood by her fiercely. For Davis, parts of the relationship mirrored her own marriage with Julius Tennon.
Viola Davis: That is our dynamic in real life. You know, Julius has told me since we got together, he said, “Vee [phonetic], now when you come home and it’s late at night, you make sure you don’t get out of that car until the gates close. And if someone’s following you, you lay on that horn and I’m gonna come out with my baseball bat, and I’ll put it on their ass.” (laughs) And, you know, I laid on the horn once by accident after coming home at three o’clock in the morning, and I counted to five. Julius came out with the baseball bat, and I knew — I was like, “That’s it, I’m gonna marry him. This is my dude.”
Chris Messina as David Falk in 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
7. Chris Messina Enjoyed His Character’s Angry Phone Calls
Chris Messina co-stars as David Falk, Michael Jordan’s famously hot-tempered agent. But for scenes in which he has heated phone calls, he wasn’t just yelling by himself.
Chris Messina: When Ben calls you up, you don’t even need to read the script, because I’ve gotten to work with him now three times and it’s always an amazing experience. It’s always surrounded by great artists in front of the camera and behind the camera. So when I read it, I loved it, but I was like, “Oh shit, these are a lot of phone calls.” (laughs) But Ben did something that I’ve never done in my career, and I’ve done a lot of phone calls. Usually you call the other actor, the phone disconnects, or a script supervisor does it with you. But Matt and I were actually down the hallway from each other. We each had three cameras on us, and Ben would go back and forth from room to room, we’d all get together and we had a blast doing it. The script was amazing, but we could play, we could overlap, we could improvise.
Marlon Wayans as George Raveling in 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
8. Marlon Wayans Used YouTube For Research, But Wasn’t Aiming For an Impression
In basketball circles, George Raveling is a well-known figure — and, as Marlon Mayans learned, one with other connections to history at large. But neither Wayans nor Affleck wanted an impersonation.
Marlon Wayans: I did a crash course on YouTube, and I learned a lot about George Raveling. I learned he was a fantastic man. And when I read the monologue (in the movie), and the fact that that was real, and that he still has (the original copy of Martin Luther King’s) “I Have a Dream” speech in his possession, I just thought that it was an amazing character to play. And usually, the more you research, the better you can do in terms of your performance. But what I love was when we went on set, Ben was like, you know, “We’re not impersonating. You can bring you to it.” And for an actor that’s always the best thing you can do: when I can mix that person with my emotions and what you bring. The script was already written so beautifully, but also we got to play. Then I could get out of my head and really have fun. And that’s what it was. When I left the set, I just felt like if every day on that set felt like the first day, that’s going to be a magical movie.
Chris Tucker as Howard White in 'Air.' Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios. © Amazon Content Services LLC.
9. Ben Affleck Has Always Wanted to Work with Chris Tucker
Everyone knows about Ben Affleck’s longtime friendship with Matt Damon. But ‘Air’ checked some other boxes for the multi-hyphenate, too.
Ben Affleck: This is a group of people who either I had known for a long, long time, (many) of whom I’ve worked with multiple times and know well and adore and admire, and then people who have been my sort of life’s goal to work with, in Viola Davis and Chris Tucker. In fact, I think Chris can attest the number of times I’ve harassed him — he passed me by in a hotel lobby and I’m like, “Chris, Chris, Chris, I wanna do a movie with you!” (laughs) I feel like humor is the highest form of intelligence, you know what I mean? So I feel like guys like Chris are the smartest, most interesting people you can meet. People to find the humor and the joy in life is just a magic that I wanna be around. Like, a few times I’ve made him laugh and I take a secret pride in that. I’m like, “He just laughed at my joke!”
Matthew Maher as Peter Moore in Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
10. Matthew Maher Located a Similarity Between His Character, the Designer of the Iconic Air Jordans, and Athletes
Of course, everyone knows Michael Jordan, too. But to hardcore sneaker-heads, designer Peter Moore is also a celebrity — and he even wore it like an athlete.
Matthew Maher: Weirdly, Peter Moore just passed away like a week before I was offered the movie. And I definitely did dive in (for research), I read a lot of blogs and I watched documentaries where he was featured. But what shocked me was looking at his designs and his ideas, which were so amazing and ahead of their time, where he’s talking and he’s just like a regular guy, you know? He’s talking and he says, “Yeah, there was too much red and then we decided to just leave it that way.” He was very like direct (in all his descriptions). And I thought the biggest parallel was listening to how pro athletes talk about what they do, which is like, “Well, we just kept at it,” even though they’re doing these amazing things (that others can’t). A genius doesn’t always express himself very well when he’s talking about his (own) genius acts.
Director Ben Affleck on the set of 'Air.' Photo: Ana Carballos. © Amazon Content Servoces LLC.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Air:'
- 'Space Jam' (1996)
- 'Jerry Maguire' (1996)
- ‘Good Will Hunting' (1998)
- 'Dogma' (1999)
- ‘Gone Baby Gone' (2007)
- ‘The Town' (2010)
- 'Moneyball' (2011)
- 'Argo' (2012)
- 'Live by Night' (2017)
- 'The Last Duel' (2021)
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‘Air’ is produced by David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Madison Ainley, Jeff Robinov, Peter Guber, and Jason Michael Berman. It is set to release exclusive in theaters on April 5, 2023.
