How Ben Affleck’s ‘Air’ Immortalizes Michael Jordan Against a Backdrop of ’80s Pop Ephemera

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are promoting their new film “Air,” telling the story of Nike’s Air Jordans. The film follows a Nike executive that lands a Michael Jordan endorsement, boosting the young athlete’s career and creating a product that revolutionized the sports market. In an interview, Affleck and Damon discussed the first time they met Jordan, with Jordan and Affleck entering a challenge of who was tallest.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “Air” music supervisor Andrea von Foerster received a music playlist from Ben Affleck titled 1984. “It was literally my childhood,” she says of the song collection that featured classic ’80s hits including “Africa” by Toto, “Candy Girl” by New Edition and “Jump” by Van Halen. The Affleck-helmed film, set in that same year, navigates Nike’s bid to land NBA player Michael Jordan and explores his groundbreaking sponsorship deal with the company. That playlist from the director and star of the film was the springboard for the 23 needle drops and 18 score cues “Air” features. In curating the film’s needle drops, Foerster wasn’t just using music to play against what was on screen — “the music was used as a showcase to tell a story,” she says.

Ben Affleck's a jack of all trades, and apparently a master at all of them!The 50-year-old actor wowed the world recently when he flawlessly gave an interview in Spanish to promote , the biopic about Nike's groundbreaking collaboration with Michael Jordan (now in theaters). A snippet of the interview, conducted by the radio station, , made the rounds on social media, and just about everyone was blown away at how deftly and eloquently he spoke in Castilian Spanish, perhaps as an homage to Spain, home of the radio station that conducted the interview.During the interview, Affleck spoke about the reason why the NBA legend was not cast in the film, as well as the three things that were most important to Jordan if Affleck was to move forward with the making of the film.

Ben Affleck may be the new Benito. The actor and filmmaker is fluent in Spanish, and he showed off his impressive skills in an interview for a La Cadena SER, a radio network in Spain.

"AIR," the new movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and directed by Affleck, reunites old friends, with a stamp of approval by Michael Jordan. It is no secret that Affleck and Damon have been friends for decades, first meeting when Damon was 10 and Affleck was 8. In previous interviews, both actors have expressed they each had a love for acting at an early age, which drew them to one another.

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.

Amazon Studios’ robustly entertaining, real-life drama definitely has the makings of one. It’s far and away the most likable film released so far this year.There’s a starry cast led by Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck, who also directs his best movie since “Argo” 11 years ago. Running time: 112 minutes.

on the “American Idol” winner’s daytime talk show. Damon then explained how he set up a super-intense group in which players compete in Wordle, Quordle and Octordle, before combining their scores.“So there’s Octordle, which is the eight words, and then Quordle, which is the four words, and then Wordle, which is the one. So we play all three and you add up your score,” the “Bourne Identity” actor enthused.

The new movie AIR is all about Nike signing Michael Jordan as a new spokesperson, but you never actually see his face in the film.

While Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were writing “The Last Duel,” their first screenplay together since their 1997 breakthrough, “Good Will Hunting,” they noticed that something in their winding and usually separate careers had been missing.

“Family First: Winning the Parenting Game.”Michael Jordan could soar through the air — but he could also hem pants, dust and cook. Life skills were “a result of such parental expectations,” she wrote. The mother of five, now 81, ran a tight ship.

Yes, we are making a meal out of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent appearance on Bill Simmons’s The Ringer podcast recently to promote Affleck’s new directorial effort “Air” which co-stars Damon (read our review), about Nike and its relationship with Michael Jordan and we fully admit it. Look, it’s just chalked full of good stories, and look; sometimes this is (infinitely) more interesting than the regular news grist mill.

Ben Affleck steals the show at the “Air” red carpet.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor It’s been more than 25 years since Ben Affleck became the youngest Oscar winner for best original screenplay for “Good Will Hunting,” which he co-wrote and starred in with Matt Damon. Isn’t it time for a sequel? Not so much. Damon laughed when revealing that Affleck was recently approached for a follow-up movie. “Someone just tried to pitch Ben ‘Good Will Hunting 2,’” Damon told me Monday at the premiere of “Air” in Los Angeles. “I shit you not — that happened. He told me today. He was like, ‘You’re not going to believe what I heard.’ This was a flat-out sequel. I don’t get it.”

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez packed on the PDA at the red carpet premiere of his new film, Air, on Monday night. Ben and Jennifer, who rekindled their early 2000s romance and got married last year, attended the red carpet premiere for Ben's new sports film which he both directed and stars in.The couple were seen posing together, and put on some PDA for the cameras as they were seen holding each other close before kissing. Jennifer wore a long-sleeved Antonia Grimaldi dress which had a sheer white top covered in rhinestones with a neon green maxi skirt that perfectly hugged her around her hips and waist.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor 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. 

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are amongst the thousands of fans that tune into “Yellowstone” whenever a new season drops. In an appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Affleck revealed that he’s a bit “disturbed” by his wife’s love of the series.

Ben Affleck has revealed that Michael Jordan had a number of demands when it came to making the forthcoming movie Air.Affleck has directed and starred in the film, which is based upon the story of Nike’s courting of the former NBA superstar to create the now iconic Air Jordan trainer. Air is set to be released next month with Matt Damon in the role of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, who spearheaded Nike‘s pursuit of Jordan.However, before cameras got rolling on the film, Affleck has revealed that approached the former basketball great to make sure he was happy with how the movie was set to play out. It turns out Jordan had a number of demands for Affleck, in return for his blessing – including a veto of who would play his beloved mother, Deloris.Speaking at the film’s premiere at the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, Affleck [as per Variety] said: “I had a chance to sit down with Michael Jordan, because I just wasn’t going to make this movie without asking him, ‘What matters to you?’ Interestingly, and tellingly, he had a few things that mattered.”One of Jordan’s demands was that the film feature Howard White, vice president of the Jordan brand and a Nike executive, who was not featured in the original script.

Matt Damon couldn’t just pick one favourite thing about working with his longtime friend Ben Affleck as a director on their new film “Air”.

Ben Affleck loves directing his longtime friend Matt Damon.