Inside the Air Global Press Conference

From award-winning director Ben Affleck, Air reveals the game-changing partnership between a then undiscovered Michael Jordan and Nike’s fledgling basketball division which revolutionized the world of sports and culture with the Air Jordan brand. Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Marlon Wayans, Chris Tucker, Matthew Maher, Julius Tennon, and Viola Davis, and written by Alex Convery.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to attend the global press conference for the film to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the film was created.

Chris Tucker on How He Embodied and Prepared to Play Howard White
“I knew Howard White, so I had all access to him. I talked with him for hours and everybody that he mentored like Charles Barkley and people from his childhood—people he played hopscotch with, teachers, and coaches. I thought it was going to be a quick conversation with him. He was like, ‘No, no, no, hold up. I got somebody else that I need you to talk to.’ I got a lot of information together to embody his spirit, his dialect, and put it all together into this character. Everybody said he was like Confucius. He was this nice guy who saw the glass half full instead of half empty. I wanted the character to be positive.” — Chris Tucker

Ben Affleck on Wearing Multiple Hats and Working with His Film Family
“It made it so much easier because this is a group of people who either I had known for a long, long time or had an enormous amount of respect for. Matt Maher, Chris Messina, Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, all of whom I’ve worked with multiple times and know well. I adore and admire the people who have been in my life. It’s been a goal of mine to work with Viola Davis and Chris Tucker. Chris can attest to the number of times that I’ve harassed him as he passed me by in a hotel lobby. I was like, ‘Chris, Chris, I want to do a movie with you.’ Finally, this subject matter brought him around. He came in and created this role. I said, ‘I need you as a collaborator, a filmmaker, your voice, your experience, and your perspective. This movie will be a massive failure if it’s just my voice and my experience and perspective.’ It was everyone from Chris, Howard, Viola, Marlon, and Jason who brought all these things that are invaluable to telling a story. It actually felt like we were walking on air.” — Ben Affleck

Chris Messina on Reuniting with Ben and the Filming Experience
“When Ben calls you up, you don’t even need to read the script. I’ve worked with him three times now. It’s always an amazing experience. You’re always surrounded by great artists in front of the camera and behind the camera. When I read it, I loved it. I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, these are a lot of phone calls.’ 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, and a script supervisor does it with you. But Matt and I were down the hall from each other. We each had three cameras on us. Ben would go back and forth from room to room. We had a lot of fun. The script was amazing, but we could play, we could overlap, and we could improvise.” — Chris Messina

Jason Bateman on Michael Jordan’s Legacy and What He Hopes Audiences Take Away
“It’s a combination of the underdog story and the shared experience we all had with Michael Jordan at that time. We all had separate experiences with Michael and then came together in the same room to figure out and learn what was behind that story, who this legend became, and the story behind Air Jordan. It was a real eye-opener for me.” — Jason Bateman

Viola Davis on Channeling Deloris Jordan
“She is steady in zen neutrality. This woman is very, very steady and quiet. I would imagine that even when she gets mad, she’s probably very, very, very steady. 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. It was both flattering and challenging. It was a joy to work with Matt, Ben, and all these terrific actors.” — Viola Davis

Matt Damon on Getting Michael’s Blessing and the Pivotal Moment in the Creation of This Story
“The first step was getting the blessing of Michael Jordan to even make this film. Ben said, ‘We should go see him.’ My kids were up to something in New York and I couldn’t go, so Ben went to Florida to see Michael. Michael said, ‘It’s okay with me.’ Ben said, ‘Well, what I really would love to know is what is most important to you.’ It was during that meeting that he said George Raveling, Howard White, and then he started talking about his mom. Ben said, ‘He had this look on his face when he spoke about his mom that I’ve never seen before.’ We all felt like, ‘Well, now we know what the movie is.’ But Ben said, ‘The only bad news is we have to get Viola Davis. If we don’t get Viola, we can’t make this movie.’ That was when we started thinking about how to expand Deloris’ story.” — Matt Damon

Marlon Wayans on Bringing Himself to the Role
“What I love was when we went to set, Matt and Ben were like, ‘We’re not impersonating. You can bring yourself to it.’ That’s always for an actor the best thing that you can do. You can honor this person and mix that person with your own emotions.” — Marlon Wayans

Alex Convery on Writing Air
“I’m a ’90s Chicago kid, which is where the Bulls and Michael Jordan and that connection comes from. I came to the story 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 how Air Jordan came together. I was at a point in my career where I was trying to write a script that got noticed. This is a story of how Nike got Michael Jordan. It had that ability to go to the top of the pile where people would give it a bit more of a chance. But like everything, it comes down to character, right? So the question was, who can be the protagonist and the engine of this movie? Sonny and Deloris were really, to me, what elevated it above just a movie about a shoe and Michael Jordan. It’s finding human elements in a very big movie.” — Alex Convery

Air is in theaters now.