SEATTLE — It's hard to remember a time when Nike wasn't king, but in 1984 the Northwest company was in the shadow of Mount Hood and basketball shoe competitors Converse and Adidas.
"AIR" is the story of how everything changed when Nike partnered with Michael Jordan.
Ben Affleck directed the film and stars as Phil Knight, opposite longtime friend Matt Damon (who plays Sonny Vaccaro, the marketing executive who brought Jordan to Nike's attention.)
Viola Davis plays Jordan's mother Deloris, per the request of Jordan himself. He also told filmmakers about the importance of Nike executive Howard White (played by Chris Tucker) and former Olympics coach George Raveling (played by Marlon Wayans.)
Entertainment reporter Kim Holcomb talked to Affleck, Damon, Tucker and Wayans about making the film, which included getting establishing shots in Oregon — where Affleck was surprised by the sunshine.
AFFLECK: "I guess your reputation is a little overblown for being gloomy.”
HOLCOMB: “Or maybe we just say that less people will move here?”
AFFLECK: “Yes, Californians won't flock up there, probably."
HOLCOMB: "Which was more fun for you — telling Matt he was going to have a stomach, or the middle hair part?"
AFFLECK: (laughs) "The bodysuit, and we did something with the lens to widen his face and I shot his profiles from the other side. That was pretty simple. It was trying to find a hair style that was 80s and real and didn't look like it was trying to be attention-getting. He went for the kind of Shawn Cassidy kind of thing."
HOLCOMB: "What is it like to be directed by your best friend while he is wearing purple and pink spandex and mirrored wrap-around sunglasses?”
DAMON: “And an orange wig, yeah. There was one day when the wig, he hadn't set the wig yet so he had just stuffed it on his head and it was kind of flapping off, and I just finally said, 'Dude I can't listen to a word you're saying until you do something about the wig.'"
HOLCOMB: "Have you heard anything from (Jordan’s) camp? Are you prepared for a Michael Jordan review?"
WAYANS: "I'm hoping he likes it. It would be terrible if the greatest ballplayer of all time hated my performance. But you know, I'd just remind him of some of his games where he didn't do so well.”
DAMON: (laughs) “You can count them on one hand.”
WAYANS: “At least two."
HOLCOMB: “Some of the most compelling scenes in the movie are phone calls.”
AFFLECK: "Something I've always wanted to do was shoot phone calls at the same time. Usually you film one phone call and an actor will read with someone off-camera. So we built the sets in the same space so the phone calls could happen, so Chris could look like he was at the airport but he was just outside the building and Matt could be in his office."
TUCKER: "He made it so natural, and I didn't even think about how genius that was until afterwards. I said, 'Where's Ben?' He's upstairs — I thought he was going to be down there (and say,) ‘Do this, do that.’ He's just like, 'You're on, man. You better be ready,' and it was awesome."
HOLCOMB: “Do you have a sneaker story?”
DAMON: "You have no idea the can of worms you just opened.”
WAYANS: “You don't know who you're talking to. I've probably got more Jordans than Jordan.”
DAMON: “I bet that's true.”
WAYANS: “I have 1,100 pairs of Jordans.”
HOLCOMB: "Matt, do you have a pair yourself or do you need to go to Marlon's closet and borrow a few?”
DAMON: “I'm a size 11 unfortunately, Marlon's a size 12, so it's painful. He told me I could have any shoes I wanted and then I realized his feet were too big.”
HOLCOMB: “That's when you just stuff the sock in there.”
DAMON: “Stuff a sock in there like when I was a kid, taking my brother's shoes. (laughter)"
“AIR” is nominated for 2 Golden Globes and 3 Critics Choice Awards.
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