Ben Affleck’s Air tells the true story of how Nike ran a tense campaign to sign Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal in 1984 when he was just a rookie in the NBA. The contract eventually improved how Nike was viewed by the public and changed how athletes negotiated brand deals.
Matt Damon stars in the film as Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, who tries to win over Jordan’s mother, Deloris (Viola Davis), amid the negotiation process. Meanwhile, Affleck appears as Nike CEO Phil Knight in the film based on Alex Convery’s screenplay.
The cast also includes Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Matthew Maher and Julius Tennon.
In addition to appearing onscreen, both Affleck and Damon are among the film’s producers.
During the movie’s world premiere at South by Southwest Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, Affleck spoke to the audience about his hopes that the film would succeed.
“Tonight is the most important night of my professional life,” the director told the crowd. “This is an optimistic, hopeful movie about people. So I can’t hide behind being an auteur — [as if to say] ‘you don’t need to understand my movie.’ I really hope you like it. … So no pressure, but it’s all on you.”
While several people involved in the business deal are featured in the film, Affleck explained that no one portrays Jordan because the athlete has become an “idea” to people.
“When you are that person, when you become so much more than a hero or an athlete or even an icon, you start to become an idea to people. You touch them and just start to represent hope and excellence and greatness. You are one of a kind. And there is no way I was ever going to ask an audience to believe that anybody other than Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan. Which was also out of my own naked self interest, frankly, because I knew it would destroy the movie,” he explained at SXSW. “You will see him [in archival clips] in the movie, but you will see Michael Jordan as he truly is in his authentic masterful genius, which exists for all of us to see. It was a deliberate choice. I thought he was too majestic to have anyone impersonate him and — as I told him — ‘You’re too old to play the part.’”
The biographical drama premiered at SXSW on March 18 before its wide theatrical release on April 5.
Read on to find out how the cast prepared to play their real-life counterparts.
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Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro
Image Credit: Bob Leverone/Sporting News via Getty Images ; Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Damon stars in Air was Vaccaro, a former sports marketing executive who tried to sign Jordan to a deal with Nike by winning over the athlete’s mother.
Before bringing the character to the big screen, Damon spoke to Vaccaro over Zoom to prepare for the role.
“It really helps when you like the person,” the actor told THR at the film’s L.A. premiere about playing a character based on a real person. “I’m so fond of that guy. He’s such a sweet, nice person, and everybody I’ve talked to about him, like, people really love Sonny. He really loves basketball. He loves the players. He’s a really genuine guy.”
Damon added that it was “really easy” to play Vaccaro because he wanted to do “justice to that kind of soul.”
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Ben Affleck as Phil Knight
Image Credit: Jamie Squire /Allsport/GettyImages; Courtesy of AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Affleck stars in the film as Knight, the co-founder of Nike Inc. who previously served as the chairman and CEO of the company.
“Phil is an interesting guy,” Affleck told THR in his March cover story. “He talks about Buddhism, Eastern philosophy. He also talks about being a ruthless capitalist. So right there, I think this is a guy of many contradictions, which is fun to play.”
The actor explained that there’s “a tension between having once been the entrepreneur, the guy selling shoes out of your car, and now running a big company, being responsible for everyone’s jobs.” Affleck added, “That’s a real change. And how do you reconcile that? The way he vacillates [about spending to sign Jordan] but in the end goes for it.”
Before production began, Affleck spoke to Jordan about bringing the story to the big screen.
After explaining that the film would not be an “authorized Michael Jordan story,” Affleck recalled telling Jordan that he wouldn’t make Air if he wasn’t OK with it. Despite not being heavily involved with the project, the director revealed that Jordan shared crucial information about the experience that led to several changes in the script.
“He was the one who told me about [Nike executive] Howard White, who wasn’t in the original script, who’s played by Chris Tucker. And I said, ‘Any anecdotes about your dad?’ And without going into any more detail, he actually talked about his mom, who wasn’t really in the script,” Affleck said. “That’s when I understood what the movie was. Talking to him about his mom was incredibly moving, and I realized, ‘Oh, this isn’t about Nike.’”
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Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan
Image Credit: Steve Kagan /Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images; Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Deloris Jordan is the athlete’s mother. During the preproduction process, Jordan asked Affleck to cast Davis as his mom.
While talking to THR, Davis explained that Deloris “brokered” her son’s “deal to get him a huge stake in the shoe and in turn, protected her son’s legacy.”
“I wanted to know more about this woman who had the strength and courage to fight for her son’s worth,” she continued about why she was drawn to the role. “For Deloris to have this insight and progressive vision, to stand her ground in the negotiation room — which I know can be the hardest part of the job — makes her an incredible woman. That made me lean into this project.”
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Julius Tennon as James R. Jordan Sr.
Image Credit: ©IMDb TV / Courtesy Everett Collection; Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES James R. Jordan Sr. was the NBA star’s father and the husband of Deloris. He died in 1993 when he was shot while taking a nap in his car.
Tennon, who is married to Davis is real life, told Critqal that he thought the script was “fabulous.”
“To have the opportunity to do this with Ben and Matt and the team and then my wife, it was just like kind of a no-brainer,” he said about agreeing to play the role.
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Marlon Wayans as George Raveling
Image Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images; Courtesy of AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES George Raveling is a former Olympics basketball coach who worked with Jordan at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.
Wayans told Digital Spy that he took a “loose” approach while playing the real-life coach.
“I talked to my brother Damon, who’s friends with Jordan, and he spoke to Jordan and he knew George,” the actor told the outlet about his preparation process. “My brother gave me some talk about George and Jordan’s relationship, and then I just watched a lot of tape for the accent and watched as much YouTube videos as I can.”
He added that Affleck and Damon told the cast that their portrayals didn’t have to be completely “spot-on” and they weren’t doing “impressions.” Wayans explained, “We got to fill the spirit of the character as actors.”
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Chris Messina as David Falk
Image Credit: Doug Pensinger /Allsport; Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Messina appears as David Falk, a sports agent who represented Jordan for his entire career.
The actor told Esquire that he “thought” about reaching out to Falk, though was “hesitant” about it. “I’m playing David Falk, but I’m playing a movie version of him that’s such a different guy,” he told the outlet. “He’s much taller, smarter, balder. The one thing that we had in common was that we’re both from Long Island. So I could sit on that.”
Messina admitted to THR that he wasn’t thrilled about the several phone call scenes he had to film with Damon, though called Affleck a “smart director” because he put the two actors “on the phone at the same time.”
“We were right down the hallways from each other, so we could overlap and improvise,” Messina shared at the L.A. premiere. “It felt like Matt and I were really in a scene, face to face.”
He then credited the screenplay for bringing the character to life. “I really think anyone who played this role would have had a great time doing it,” Messina shared. “I was just the lucky one who got it.”
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Chris Tucker as Howard White
Image Credit: Alexander Tamargo/WireImage; Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Howard White is a Nike executive and currently serves as vp of the Jordan brand.
Tucker had an advantage when preparing to play White because they have been friends for years. “I call Howard every year because I need gift bags for my foundation golf tournament, where we raise money for all kinds of things,” he told the Los Angeles Times about when Affleck approached him for the role. “So I got in touch with him, and he said he had heard about the movie. I said, “I’m checking it out, but I’m not sure I’m going to do it.”
Because White wasn’t in the original draft of the script, Tucker spoke to his “childhood buddies from when they had played hopscotch, teachers, basketball coaches” to get a grasp on the character.
“I put all this information together and wrote my part,” the actor explained. “That’s the way I like to work anyway.”
After noting that playing White was the “hardest [he’s] ever worked on a character,” Tucker added, “I locked myself in this hotel for 20 days to take in and go over all this information. Then I had to dissect the script, because Howard wasn’t in it and I didn’t want to mess up the plot. It was fun, but it was hard work.”
Tucker also spoke to THR about working with Affleck. “It was great,” he said at the L.A. premiere. “It was like making a movie at your house.”
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Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser
Image Credit: Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC Bateman portrays Rob Strasser, Knight’s right-hand man who played a vital role in creating Jordan’s shoe line. Strasser was assigned to close the deal with Jordan, which helped Nike improve business. Strasser died in 1993 at age 46 following a heart attack.
The actor jokingly told THR that he was “perfect” to play Strasser because he had the “’84 loser hair” at the time he was contacted about the role.
Bateman also reflected on what it was like to work with Affleck as a director during the L.A. premiere. “He’s so comfortable there. He hires all of his friends both in front of and behind the camera,” he told THR. “The environment is really safe and easy and loose, and everybody is encouraged to kind of contribute, which is a nice thing.”
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Matthew Maher as Peter Moore
Image Credit: Courtesy of ANA CARBALLOSA /AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES Peter Moore, who died in April 2022, was an American designer and creative director at Nike and Adidas from the 1970s until the 1990s. He was credited for creating the originally banned Air Jordan 1 silhouette and the Nike Dunk design.
Maher explained that he prepared to portray Moore by reading about the late designer. Through his research, the actor learned that Moore was a “worker” and “problem solver.”
“The genius was there, but the way it applied itself was just, like, just thinking about the task at hand and how best to do it,” he told Critqal. “I found there’s a lot in the script in his sort of down-to-Earthness, but also his interesting pretensions that I really connected to.”
Maher went on to explain that the way Moore is described in the script “comfortable in his work” and he is “not interested in whether or not Nike’s going to make it or the business dealings or how much money is gonna be made.”
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