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Ben Affleck’s Air employs a large ensemble cast to tell the story of how Nike landed Michael Jordan and created the iconic Air Jordan line of shoes, with Deloris Jordan brokering a revolutionary deal for her son.

Affleck — who pulls triple duty as director, producer (via his newly formed Artists Equity with Matt Damon, who stars in the film as Nike exec Sonny Vaccaro) and actor, playing Nike CEO Phil Knight — joined his stars Viola Davis (Deloris Jordan), Julius Tennon (Michael’s father, James Jordan; also Davis’ husband), Marlon Wayans (Olympic basketball coach George Raveling) and Jason Bateman (Nike marketing vp Rob Strasser) to discuss acting opposite a phone receiver and fighting for what you are worth, onscreen and off.

This is a large ensemble cast. What role were you most anticipatory of casting?

Ben Affleck Part of the genesis [of casting] was a conversation one afternoon with Michael Jordan. The...

Air

Amazon

Ben Affleck directs this corporate tale that goes behind the scenes of Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan, in which the shoe company placed a massive bet on the then-rookie basketball player to create the now-ubiquitous Air Jordan shoe line. Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike exec who attempts to woo the up-and-coming athlete into signing a major deal, while Viola Davis delivers a meaty supporting performance as Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan.

All of Us Strangers

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Andrew Haigh’s metaphysical drama, adapted from Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, stars Andrew Scott as a London screenwriter who begins a relationship with a mysterious neighbor played by Paul Mescal. Struggling to write a film inspired by his deceased parents, he is drawn back to his childhood home — only to discover his mother and father (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) living as if they had not died in a car accident 30 years earlier.

2023 has proven to be a pivotal year for moviemaking. The industry itself seems to be in a state of upheaval, and perhaps renewal, as two labor strikes that dominated the calendar between May and November culminated with the writers and actors guilds earning hard-won benefits for their work, as well as securities against the advent of A.I.

Onscreen, too, audience tastes seem to be changing as the biggest films of the year are pictures with strong authorial voices from Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan. The former used a beloved doll IP to make a comedy about growing and growing old in the shadow of the patriarchy; the latter did a character study on the man who invented the most genocidal weapon imaginable. Neither were a sequel or a conventional bet, and both far outperformed the movies that were. The industry is changing, but beyond the news and potential paradigm...

Michael Jordan's life story may not have been the sole focus of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's movie "Air," now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, but it makes a lot of familial connections to his mom, Deloris Jordan (played by Viola Davis), and dad, James Jordan Sr.. The movie recalls the true story behind Nike's epic landmark deal with Michael and how the Air Jordan sneaker came about. However, it also depicts the all-star athlete's close relationship with his parents, as well as his mother's major influence on his legendary career.

Tennon as Michael's father makes many appearances throughout "Air," mainly alongside Davis's character. And though the film covers a pivotal point in Michael's life, it doesn't include one of his most life-changing moments from 1993: the murder of his father, which, at the time, sparked a national media spectacle.

For those who may be wondering what...

There’s something familiar in the air — namely, another Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Viola Davis perhaps. Despite being outside the top five and six in our Oscar and Golden Globe rankings, respectively, the newly minted Egot winner is currently expected to land a SAG Award bid — her 12th — for her supporting turn in Ben Affleck‘s “Air,” according to our early odds, in which she’s in fifth place. But that should not come as a shock to anyone.

After all, few people have ruled over the SAG Awards quite like Davis has. The 11-time nominee has parlayed five of seven individual nominations into victories, prevailing in lead for “The Help” (2011) and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020), supporting for “Fences” (2016) and TV drama actress for “How to Get Away with Murder” (2015-16). With her “Ma Rainey” triumph, she joined Frances McDormand and Renée Zellweger as the only people to...

“Air” will shoot for Golden Globes — but not as a drama. The Ben Affleck-helmed film will submit in the comedy/musical categories, Gold Derby has learned exclusively.

Matt Damon will seek his second Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical Actor (never forget his first win for 2015’s “The Martian”). The rest of the cast will run in supporting, including Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Julius Tennon, Chris Tucker and Viola Davis. The categorization does not affect them as the Globes have genre-neutral supporting categories.

The sports drama chronicles talent scout Sonny Vaccaro‘s (Damon) quest to sign Michael Jordan to the then-fledgling Nike in 1984, which led to the Air Jordan line that revolutionized athlete endorsement deals. It’s also a slick crowd-pleaser peppered with funny moments, mostly from Messina, who plays Jordan’s agent, David Falk, and has several hilariously vulgar phone call scenes.

See ‘Air’: What are...

Viola Davis shines in Ben Affleck‘s “Air,” which tells the true story of how Nike signed Michael Jordan and made the Air Jordan shoe. Matt Damon portrays Nike marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro who negotiates a deal with Jordan’s mother. As Deloris Jordan, Davis deliver a powerful performance.

The actress imbues quiet strength, a sense of duty and honor, and a fierce motherly love into the stony exterior of an ambitious woman who knows her son’s worth and loves her family. It’s an enjoyable performance and it helps elevate the film from the average depths it likely would have sunken to without her. And critics agree.

Peter Travers (ABC News) explained: “Jordan himself insisted that only one actress could play his mom — Egot winner Viola Davis. Smart choice since the triumphant Davis is a primal force who powers the role of Deloris by nailing every nuance with maternal fire and feeling.

Deloris Jordan, born Deloris Peoples in North Carolina in 1941, is the mother of basketball legend Michael Jordan. Deloris Jordan, played by Viola Davis in Ben Affleck’s sports drama Air, emerges as a crucial and important figure in Michael Jordan’s quest to become a sporting superstar. Although the film largely concentrates on the history of how Nike introduced the “Air Jordan” to the world, it places a significant emphasis on Deloris and her role in her son’s success. Deloris’s brilliance, perseverance, and unfailing conviction in her son’s skills is highlighted by Viola Davis’s outstanding performance. The portrayal of Deloris in the film symbolizes the spirit of a loving mom who is actively involved in molding her child’s destiny.

Although Sonny Vaccaro never approached Jordan’s parents directly, the movie takes artistic license to illustrate Deloris as having a significant impact on Michael’s life.

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“I’m willing to bet my career on one guy,” Matt Damon says as Nike marketing exec John “Sonny” Vaccaro in the trailer for the Ben Affleck-directed Air — now streaming on Prime Video.

Buy: Air

When it premiered earlier this spring, Air earned a reported $20.2 million at the box office during its first week and even inspired a jump in sneaker sales. Now over a month since its theatrical release,...

Ben Affleck has been known to make the kind of old-school, supremely entertaining movies that make you want to bang your fists on the table and let out a “This is how you do it!”. And Air, unsurprisingly, is another one of his gambles that turns out to be a win for him and the everyone else involved. Without infusing his creation with too much gimmicky tension, Affleck makes you swoon over his instinctive mastery, with the story of a win echoing through the lobbies and the offices instead of the wild uproar of people witnessing Jordan’s magic on the court. There’s no big reveal to be found down the line with Air, which has found its name in the groundbreaking foundation of Air Jordan, a pair of shoes worn by a legendary basketball player. It’s about the wild passage one risky sports marketing deal provided for...

If “The Last Dance” taught us anything, it’s that people love Michael Jordan content — and now we have another special about His Airness and, more specifically, his shoes. The new film “Air” comes to Prime Video on Friday, May 12 and tells the tale of the partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the worlds of sports and pop culture with the Air Jordan brand. “Air” stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, and more. You can watch with a 30-Day Free Trial of Amazon Prime Video..

How to Watch Ben Affleck's 'Air' When: Friday, May 12, 2023 Where: Amazon Prime Video Stream: Watch with a 30-Day Free Trial of Amazon Prime Video. 30-Day Free Trial$8.99 / month amazon.com About Ben Affleck's 'Air'

“Air” follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team of desperate sneaker employees with everything on the line,...

Lace up your sneakers: Ben Affleck's "Air," which recounts the true story of NBA icon Michael Jordan's famous Nike deal as a young athlete, is finally heading to streaming. The Amazon Studios-produced film - which stars Affleck, Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans, and Chris Tucker - hit theaters exclusively on April 5, but if you didn't catch it yet, you'll be able to watch the film right from home as soon as next week.

"Air," directed by Affleck, goes back in time to 1984 to reveal how a then-rookie Jordan and Nike struck up their game-changing partnership that has since revolutionized the world of sports and pop culture with the dynamic Air Jordan brand. The real-life-inspired story also highlights the career-defining gamble and vision from Jordan's mother, Deloris Jordan, that helped cement the basketball star and athletic brand as household names.

On its opening day in theaters,...

The combination of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon proved to be a winning formula for "Air," and the film's theatrical success proved that moviegoers are still interested in more adult-centric storylines that don't involve people with superpowers (read our review here). Granted, Michael Jordan is about as close to a superhero as you can get in the sports world and his global brand appeal certainly didn't hurt the film's impressive box office. Marking the first project from Affleck and Damon's new production company Artists Equity, "Air" was initially going to be released exclusively on Prime Video before Amazon made a late call to release the film theatrically, a gamble that mostly paid off. So far, "Air" has made just a hair under $80 million globally with a premiere on streaming still on the horizon. That kind of coin should make Amazon even more confident in its decision to make a larger...

After 38 days in theaters, Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports, Mandalay Pictures, and Artists Equity’s Air will stream on Prime Video on May 12 in more than 240 countries.

The Ben Affleck directed, and starring movie about Nike courting a young Michael Jordan to make the signature Air Jordan show repped Amazon’s return to theatrical releases after a day-and-date strategy. The pic opened to $20.2M over the five day Easter holiday and now counts over $47.6M stateside.

Air notched a 92% Certified Fresh Tomatometer rating among critics, a 98% verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an A CinemaScore.

Matt Damon plays maverick Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro and Affleck plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight, with Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, and Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler, among others. The...

Today it was announced that Ben Affleck’s Air, from Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports, Mandalay Pictures, and the first project from Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, will premiere in India exclusively on Prime Video on May 12 in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Air has been praised by audiences and critics alike, currently boasting a 92% “Certified Fresh” Tomatometer rating and a 98% verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an “A” CinemaScore.

From award-winning director Ben Affleck, Air reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division, which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.

Ben Affleck’s critically acclaimed Air will become available to stream on Amazon Prime Video on May 12 after an exclusive run in theaters across the world.

The star-packed period sports drama, which has sparked early Oscar buzz, marks a new era for Amazon Studios in terms of how it releases certain original titles. Instead of sending Air straight to streaming, the studio has agreed to abide by a traditional theatrical window to give the movie a robust run in thousands of theaters.

Air will have played exclusively on the big screen for 39 days when it premieres on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Written by Alex Convery, Air‘s cast is led by Matt Damon, Viola Davis Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker and Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler. (Affleck also stars.)

Damon portrays former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, while Affleck plays Nike...

Sports drama stands at $79m worldwide.

Ben Affleck’s sports drama Air, which has grossed $79m worldwide in its exclusive theatrical release, will debut on Prime Video on May 12.

The Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures feature opened worldwide on April 5 and is the first title from Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity.

Air recounts the story of the partnership between then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionised the sports and contemporary culture with the launch of the Air Jordan brand.

Affleck directed and plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while Viola Davis plays Jordan’s mother Deloris Jordan,...

Actor-director Ben Affleck, who has helmed the biographical film ‘Air’ in which he plays Philip Hampson Knight, an American billionaire business magnate who co-founded sports brands like Nike, has shared that his inspiration for the movie was a picture of his younger brother wearing Air Jordan sneakers.

The Air Jordan sneakers have become an iconic part of sneaker culture and basketball history since the 80s. ‘Air’ gives an inside look into the creation of this iconic shoe and traverses its groundbreaking marketing strategies that transformed the way athletes are perceived.

Ben said, “I had a picture of my little brother wearing Air Jordan; it was the winter of 1985 or early ’86. I remember how, seemingly overnight, Nike became what you had to have if you wanted to be cool. But I had no knowledge whatsoever of the backstory of the origin of these shoes.”

He added, “It all started with the vision of one man,...

The Air Jordan sneakers have become an iconic part of sneaker culture and basketball history since the 80s. The upcoming biographical film Air gives an inside look into the creation of this iconic shoe and traverses their groundbreaking marketing strategies that transformed the way athletes are perceived.

As we wait for the India release of the film, director and actor Ben Affleck shares a peculiar memory from back in the day. He recounts how his much-anticipated film Air was conceptualised and what intrigued him to take the film onboard.

Ben shares, “I had a picture of my little brother wearing Air Jordans; it was the winter of 1985 or early ‘86. I remember how, seemingly overnight, Nike became what you had to have if you wanted to be cool. But I had no knowledge whatsoever of the backstory of the origin of these shoes. It all started with the vision of one man,...

Ben Affleck’s Air is playing in cinemas now. Filled with a star-studded ensemble cast that includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Matthew Maher, Marlon Wayans, Jay Mohr, Julius Tennon, with Chris Tucker and Viola Davis, the film reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand.

This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.

In his review of Air, Jim Batts’s says “The film’s real Mvp is Viola Davis as the steely head of the Jordan household.” And “Chris Tucker shows us that his engaging motor-mouthed persona...

There are some who will roll their eyes at Air and dismiss director Ben Affleck’s latest film as nothing more than a 90-minute Nike commercial. And they’d be wrong – it’s actually a two-hour Nike commercial.

But corporate lionizing aside, the naysayers might want to reconsider dismissing Air. The latest in an ongoing line of “how they made it” movies celebrating heroic entrepreneurs and executives – the others include last month’s Tetris and the upcoming Flamin’ Hot and Blackberry – the movie is certainly a brand deposit for a multibillion-dollar business. But it’s also a smart and funny celebration of skilled people doing their jobs well. It’s Moneyball with high tops.

Matt Damon stars as Sonny Vaccaro, a mid-level employee at Nike, which as the film opens in 1984, is a third-tier shoe company having no success with its basketball line. Vaccaro’s been brought over by Nike...

[This story contains spoilers for Air.]

Air is an underdog story about the time Nike pulled off the impossible by signing Chicago Bulls rookie Michael Jordan to an exclusive shoe deal, and the film’s screenwriter, Alex Convery, has also watched his own long-shot story play out in relatively similar fashion.

With Nike now being the No. 1 shoe manufacturer in the world, it’s difficult to imagine a time in which the industry titan was the doormat of the basketball shoe market, but Ben Affleck’s Air picks up at that place in 1984, as Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) wants to bet the farm on Jordan, the Chicago Bulls’ third overall pick in the NBA Draft. The problem is that Jordan’s agent, David Falk (Chris Messina), has no interest in arranging a meeting with Nike, considering that Jordan’s heart was already set on Adidas, with Converse being a distant second.

So, in the film,...

Who could believably play the greatest basketball player of all time? In Ben Affleck’s estimation, no one.

Nike’s quest to sign Michael Jordan to an exclusive shoe contract is the main focus of Affleck’s new movie “Air,” but the basketball legend isn’t actually shown in the Amazon release other than via archival footage and a stand-in actor whose face is obscured. As Affleck has explained numerous times during the film’s press tour the decision to make a movie largely about Jordan without Jordan onscreen was intentional.

Speaking at the film’s premiere during the SXSW Film Festival last month, Affleck said viewers’ relationships with Jordan as an athlete were too strong to compromise with any recreation. “There is no way I was ever going to ask an audience to believe that anybody other than Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan,” Affleck said, via The Hollywood Reporter.

Stars: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Julius Tennon, Matthew Maher, Jay Mohr, Marlon Wayans | Written by Alex Convery | Directed by Ben Affleck

The past decade or so has been littered with true story films, that show business and brands coming to be. Most famously, we’ve had The Social Network, but we’ve also had films like The Founder, and even currently have films like Tetris hitting our screens. Air is not on the level of The Social Network – although most films aren’t – it is however, an entertaining film that tells the story of the board room meetings and sales pitches that led Nike to sign the most famous basketball player of all time.

Ben Affleck is once again behind the camera as director, and in front of it as Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike. In an instance, we are reminded...

Michael Jordan plays a pivotal role in the movie Air — and is even present in a few climactic boardroom pitch scenes — yet his face is not shown in the film aside from shots of magazine covers and snippets of archival footage of the real-life player.

It’s a bold choice as the Amazon Studios film — which has just opened in theaters — is all about Nike executives’ wooing of the NBA megastar and its creation of the Air Jordan shoe line. During a few key scenes where Jordan is present in a room, the production uses an actor who is typically shown from behind, or the camera will focus on his hands.

Before the film’s world premiere at the South by Southwest Film & Television Festival last month, Ben Affleck preemptively told the audience they would not see Jordan in the film and explained why.

“How do you tell a story...

Amazon Studios’ first post-covid theatrical gambit, “Air,” tells the mostly untold story of how Nike convinced a promising NBA rookie named Michael Jordan to sign with them over the market-dominating likes of Addidas and Converse. Directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon alongside a packed ensemble cast, the film also stars Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, Jason Bateman, Marlon Wayans and Chris Messina and has debuted to mostly rapturous reviews and early-bird Oscar buzz.

It’s also the feature screenwriting debut of 25-year-old Alex Convery.

Plucked from obscurity to potential fortune and glory, the Black List-nominated screenwriter experienced a Hollywood-style Cinderella story when his spec script, written in the early days of Covid as he binged ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” got snapped up by Affleck and Damon and turned into the debut feature for their aspirational Artists Equity production company.

Convery sat down with TheWrap to discuss penning a...

Michael Jordan and his signature sneakers have been a fixture of pop culture since 1984, when Sonny Vaccaro convinced the then-rookie to sign an industry-changing endorsement deal with sportswear brand Nike. “Air” dramatizes many of the finer points of these real-life events, with Matt Damon playing Vaccaro, Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan and Ben Affleck pulling double duty as director and co-star. But the new film operates less as a tribute to consumerism than as an origin story of one exceptional athlete — and the leather-and-rubber vessel that has become synonymous with his legacy.

“I wasn’t all that interested in the business minutiae in the story,” Affleck tells Variety. “It’s really a fable, inspired by these characters and who they represent.”

“Air” screenwriter Alex Convery grew up in the suburbs of Illinois in the 1990s during Jordan’s historic double NBA three-peat. He says he was inspired to write the...

There are a good few ways to dramatise Michael Jordan’s landmark $2.5m sponsorship deal with Nike. One is telling the story of a young basketball rookie on the brink of legend status. Another is telling the story of his mother, Deloris Jordan, who refused to see her son exploited by corporate America. Air, Ben Affleck’s Eighties-set sports drama, chooses a third option: to platform the boardroom of largely white marketing men who successfully transformed a human being into a corporate slogan. It’s the least compelling perspective imaginable.

The success of Air depends on how willing audiences are to discard Jordan as a person in favour of Jordan as an idea. This is an individual even the film refers to as the “greatest competitive athlete in history” – but who does not speak, or even appear beyond the occasional glimpse of the back of his head (or that of...

Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan in Air Photo: Courtesy Of Amazon Studios © Amazon Content Services LLC

Wow, the last few weeks at the multiplex could almost be summed up in a slight twist on the title of the signature tune of the movie’s most popular singing cowboy, “We’re Back in the 80s Again”. Who’d have thought that the “go-go” decade would be such fertile ground for current filmmakers? Now, there was music with Spinning Gold (though much of it covers the late 70s), and the toy/game trifecta of D&d, the Mario Bros., and Tetris. Well, this new release concerns a big fashion item, though it has similar themes to that last film. Like that story, its main focus isn’t the “product”, but the hustling guy (like Henk) who will risk everything for a “piece of the pie” (as...

Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Movie doesn’t need a mushroom to get bigger, it just organically is. Out of the gate today Wednesday, sans any Tuesday previews, the feature take of the classic game is looking at $26M, for what’s translating into a $86.2M 3-day, $127.5M Wednesday through Sunday haul. Interesting, even though its opening day was a Friday, Paramount/Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had a $26.3M first day a year ago (that included Thursday previews). That film currently holds the 3-day record for a videogame feature adaptation with $72.1M, a benchmark which Super Mario Bros looks to squash.

Should those figures hold up, Super Mario Bros will rep the second best 5-day debut (Wednesday through Sunday) for an Illumination title after 2013’s Despicable Me 2 which did $143M.

No critic can shrink Super Mario Bros, the pic’s Rotten Tomatoes score at 54% Rotten,...

Amazon Studios’ Air tells the incredible story of how Nike developed a partnership with Michael Jordan, created the hugely successful Air Jordan brand, and changed the way athletes are compensated for endorsements. Ben Affleck directs and stars in the film inspired by a true story – a film that wouldn’t have been made without the blessing of the NBA legend.

“I went to speak to Michael because I’ve been lucky enough to run across him a few times. I’m not going to act like me and him are friends, you know what I mean? 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. Probably he’s forgotten it,” recalled Affleck during Air’s press conference. “So, I had at least enough of an in to say, ‘Hey, you know, can...

Ben Affleck wants to make sure you know that his new movie as a director, Air, is set in 1984. The film opens with a blizzard of images and sounds from that time, ranging from Ronald Reagan’s reelection to the “Where’s the beef?” Wendy’s commercials, to just about any other specific visual cue you can think of from that year. Once that’s over, however, the needle drops pick up the slack almost to a fault: We hear the “you’re motoring” line from Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” in a shot of a car in motion. Meanwhile Big Country’s “In A Big Country” blares over another shot of a car driving through the wilds of North Carolina.

It would get annoying—and occasionally does—if Air wasn’t such an entertaining film overall. The story of how a ragtag bunch of Nike execs wooed Michael Jordan...

Matt Damon hasn’t been shy about lavishing praise on his “Air” co-star Viola Davis. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Damon said his Oscar-winning costar is “masterful” in Ben Affleck’s new drama and compared Davis’ performance to the work of Marlon Brando.

“That’s what Brando did, right?” Damon said during a group interview with Davis and Affleck after Affleck mentioned how the actress was able to be both “opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside.”

“It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome,” Damon said of Davis.

The 2024 Oscars race has barely started but Davis is already a formidable contender in the Best Supporting Actress field. Early reviews have praised Davis for her performance as Deloris Jordan,...

Matt Damon has compared Viola Davis' acting in 'Air' to Marlon Brando.The 57-year-old actress stars as Michael Jordan's mother in Ben Affleck's new movie and both Ben and co-star Matt were hugely impressed by Viola.Ben told Entertainment Weekly: "It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything'. It’s extremely difficult to be opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside, you just don’t know what it is. It makes you want to lean in even closer, and that is as good as acting gets."Matt added: "That’s masterful acting. That’s what Brando did, right? It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome."Viola signed up...

Matt Damon has compared Viola Davis' acting in 'Air' to Marlon Brando.The 57-year-old actress stars as Michael Jordan's mother in Ben Affleck's new movie and both Ben and co-star Matt were hugely impressed by Viola.Ben told Entertainment Weekly: "It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything'. It’s extremely difficult to be opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside, you just don’t know what it is. It makes you want to lean in even closer, and that is as good as acting gets."Matt added: "That’s masterful acting. That’s what Brando did, right? It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome."Viola signed up...

Matt Damon has compared Viola Davis' acting in 'Air' to Marlon Brando.The 57-year-old actress stars as Michael Jordan's mother in Ben Affleck's new movie and both Ben and co-star Matt were hugely impressed by Viola.Ben told Entertainment Weekly: "It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything'. It’s extremely difficult to be opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside, you just don’t know what it is. It makes you want to lean in even closer, and that is as good as acting gets."Matt added: "That’s masterful acting. That’s what Brando did, right? It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome."Viola signed up...

Matt Damon has compared Viola Davis' acting in 'Air' to Marlon Brando.The 57-year-old actress stars as Michael Jordan's mother in Ben Affleck's new movie and both Ben and co-star Matt were hugely impressed by Viola.Ben told Entertainment Weekly: "It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything'. It’s extremely difficult to be opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside, you just don’t know what it is. It makes you want to lean in even closer, and that is as good as acting gets."Matt added: "That’s masterful acting. That’s what Brando did, right? It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome."Viola signed up...

“Air” hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but Ben Affleck’s upcoming drama about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan already feels like one of the feel-good stories of the year. It’s the film that reminded the world of Affleck’s serious directorial talents after his decade-spanning DC debacle. It’s given him an excuse to enjoy a bromance-filled press tour with his co-star and longtime friend Matt Damon.

And it’s the movie that taught the world Michael Jordan has great taste in films after he hand-picked Viola Davis to play his mother, Deloris Jordan.

And the basketball legend isn’t the only one who appreciates Davis’ work in the film. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Affleck and Damon both heaped praise on her performance.

“It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything,'” Affleck said of Davis’ role. “It’s...

Although Ben Affleck’s Air will tell the story of the “game-changing partnership” between Nike and the then-rookie Michael Jordan, the NBA superstar doesn’t actually appear in the movie. While speaking on the Inside Total Film podcast, Ben Affleck explained the choice not to include Michael Jordan as a character.

“Admittedly, we made as much a sort of fable as anything else, because it’s really about a character who never appears in the movie, in Michael Jordan,” Ben Affleck explained. “I felt that he’s just too iconic and recognizable and special, where you immediately would know the whole thing was a lie if I tried to tell you somebody else was Michael Jordan.” Affleck continued: “Fundamentally, what I love about it is that it’s actually about the person that I feel guided him, and serves to represent women like her all over the world, particularly in the United States,...

When Ben Affleck presented the world premiere of his new film Air at South by Southwest Film & Ftv Festival in Austin earlier this month, the director, producer and star of the Amazon Studios release called it “the most important night of my professional life.”

Monday night in Westwood must’ve been a close second.

Affleck turned up to the Regency Village Theatre for the L.A. premiere of his new film, which traces the roots of a game-changing partnership between a then-rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan brand.

It casts Matt Damon as Nike’s resident basketball expert, Sonny Vaccaro, Affleck as Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight, Jason Bateman as Nike marketing chief Rob Strasser, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Sonny’s colleague and advisor, Chris Messina as Jordan’s agent David Falk, Marlon Wayans...

As a director, Ben Affleck has proven himself to be a versatile, compelling talent, moving seamlessly from the morally complex “Gone Baby Gone” to the stark crime drama “The Town” to the tense and thrilling best picture winner “Argo.” Even Affleck’s one directorial misstep, the critically panned box office bomb “Live by Night,” has an intriguing gloss and conviction.

That’s why it’s so difficult for many viewers to answer: “Which Affleck-directed joint is your favorite?” Well, that decision may get even harder with the arrival of “Air,” Affleck’s latest feature which premiered as the Closing Night film at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this month.

“Air” tells the story of Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a marketing executive for the athletic shoe and apparel supplier Nike, Inc., who seeks to strike a deal with rookie basketball player Michael Jordan during the 1980s. Anchored by Damon...

From award-winning director Ben Affleck, Air reveals the unbelievable game-changing partnership between a then rookie Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and contemporary culture with the Air Jordan brand. This moving story follows the career-defining gamble of an unconventional team with everything on the line, the uncompromising vision of a mother who knows the worth of her son’s immense talent, and the basketball phenom who would become the greatest of all time.

Air features an all-star cast, including Matt Damon as maverick Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, Ben Affleck as Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan. Additional cast includes Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler, and Julius Tennon as James Jordan.

Air reunites Ben Affleck and Matt Damon,...

“Air” doesn’t open in theaters until next week, but it already seems like film fans have been talking about it forever. Ben Affleck’s sports drama about Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan is already one of the buzziest films of the spring thanks to strong early reviews and some viral anecdotes about the making of the film. Much has been made of Affleck’s story about visiting Michael Jordan to discuss the script, where the basketball legend essentially demanded that Affleck cast Viola Davis as his mother, Deloris Jordan.

“There’s one line for the mother character in the movie at this point — and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, he wants me to offer this to Viola Davis. How am I going to offer Viola Davis a movie with one line? That’s not going to happen,'” Affleck recently said while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter.

Amazon Studios is taking to the streets to promote Ben Affleck’s “Air,” which chronicles the beginnings of the iconic Air Jordan sneaker brand.

The studio has teamed up with iconic sneaker culture icon Jason Markk to host a multi-city consumer experience, dubbed “Fresh Air,” which ties into the film’s social campaign, “A shoe is just a shoe until I step into it.”

The activation will see guerilla street teams flood U.S. cities including Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago, in a unique opportunity to bring together sneakerheads and celebrate the culture and history of the sneaker community. The street team will also have a presence at the Jason Markk flagship store in L.A.

Free to the public, the “Fresh Air” activation allows attendees to celebrate self-expression through fashion as they share their sneaker stories while getting a complimentary shoe cleaning, with premium care products from...

Viola Davis felt "very flattered" and "deeply moved" to be asked to play Michael Jordan's mum in 'Air'.The Hollywood actress signed up to play Deloris Jordan in Ben Affleck's new movie which details the basketball legend's hugely successful partnership with sportswear giant Nike after Jordan himself put her name forward - and Viola admits she couldn't resist the challenge.She told The Hollywood Reporter: "Mothers are the most important figures in anybody’s life, so I was very flattered and deeply moved to be asked to play Michael’s mother."I know Michael Jordan but didn’t know that Deloris brokered this 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. For Deloris to have this insight and progressive vision,...

Today, there are 37 different variations of Air Jordan models available. From the basketball court to the streets and even the catwalk, Air Jordans have become a staple in our culture. Director Ben Affleck’s “Air” invites audiences into Nike headquarters to experience the story behind the popular shoe that was built solely for the most legendary athlete of all time, Michael Jordan.

Set in 1984, Affleck stars as Nike founder Phil Knight. An ambitious, rebellious, and passionate leader who likes to live by and reiterate Douglas McArthur’s famous quote “you are remembered for the rules you break,” Knight thrived on taking risks. During this time, Nike was not as successful as its competitors Adidas and Converse. Their NBA division was struggling to sign an athlete to sponsor their gear. Nike’s basketball guru in charge of changing that slump was Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon). As the Nike board...

When Ben Affleck met with Michael Jordan about Air, the director’s new movie that highlights a key moment in the basketball icon’s story, Jordan had one request. “Viola Davis. That’s my mom,” the filmmaker recalled to The Hollywood Reporter of what Jordan told him.

Air, the story of how Michael Jordan’s family and a group of executives at Nike revolutionized the business with one historic sneaker deal, premiered Saturday at the South by Southwest film festival, ahead of Amazon releasing it wide theatrically April 5. In addition to Davis playing Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan, the movie stars Matt Damon, Chris Tucker and Jason Bateman as execs at Nike; Affleck as Nike co-founder and former CEO Phil Knight; and Davis’s real-life husband, Julius Tennon, as Jordan’s dad.

For Davis, who shot the movie after completing her grueling Woman King shoot, the character of Deloris was the draw.

“Viola, I love you. Your outfit is eating.”

That was but one of many laudatory comments the cast and crew of Air received following its premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, and it prompted the film’s director and co-star, Ben Affleck, to crack, “I never get that comment… but well-deserved, and I see why!” (For the record, Davis looked flawless in an all-white suit.)

A late entry — and the closing-night film — to the fest, the Amazon Studios feature explores the creation of the first Air Jordan sneaker,...

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Viola Davis and Chris Tucker scored a standing ovation at South by Southwest on Saturday night with their closing night film. “Air” was an immediate Mvp, even without the attendance of its subject, basketball legend Michael Jordan.

One year after “Everything Everywhere All at Once” debuted at SXSW on its way to seven Oscar wins, the Austin festival launched another major crowd pleaser.

“Air,” directed by Affleck and written by Alex Convery, received not only rapturous applause when its credits rolled, but also sustained cheering throughout the inspirational film — particularly in scenes involving Davis as Deloris Jordan, negotiating with Nike’s Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) for her son’s worth.

The film follows the origin story of Nike’s Air Jordan shoe line, which began with Vaccaro’s strong belief in Michael Jordan (Damian Young) when he was just a rookie. On top of directing, Affleck...

Ben Affleck has been a mainstay of the screen for three decades, dating back to his days in "Dazed and Confused," all the way up through his recent acclaimed turns in films like "The Last Duel." But while Affleck has continued to work as an actor very consistently, it has been a full seven years since he stepped behind the camera to direct a film in the form of 2016's unfortunate flop "Live by Night." At long last though, Affleck is back with his latest directorial effort "Air," which tells the story of how Nike created its legendary Air Jordan line of shoes around Michael Jordan, aka the greatest basketball player in the history of the game. To put it simply, having Affleck back behind the camera is welcome.

The film, which I caught at SXSW where its world premiere was held, does not necessarily focus on Michael Jordan, even...