Why Air doesn’t really feature Michael Jordan
Air is now available to watch on Prime Video if you missed it at the cinema, and Ben Affleck's new movie could leave you baffled over one key aspect.
The movie tells the story of how Nike shoe executive Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) cut a deal with then-rookie basketball player Michael Jordan to become the face of a new style of basketball shoes. This idea changed the Nike company – and the sports industry – forever.
Since the movie is about how the famous Air Jordan shoe came to be, one would expect Michael Jordan himself (or at least the actor playing him) to be front and centre throughout the movie.
However, aside from some archive clips of the real Jordan, the only times we see Michael – as played by Damian Delano Young in his first big-screen role – are from behind or when his face is turned away from the camera. And he only gets one word of dialogue in the whole movie.
If this left you confused or you found it unintentionally funny (such as when Michael turns his face away at one key moment to look at a wall), rest assured that there was a creative reason behind the decision to not really feature the basketball icon.
Michael Jordan in Air explained
Ben Affleck, who directed Air and also stars as Nike founder Phil Knight in the film, explained his decision to obscure Young's face during the scenes where he appears as Michael Jordan.
"Air is not Michael Jordan's story, but there is no story without him," Affleck said in the press notes for the movie. "I would not have made this movie without first reaching out to him. And I'm grateful to Michael for sharing what was important to him. His presence and influence is felt throughout the film, though we don’t see his face."
"Because he is such an icon — an undisputedly important and meaningful figure, someone everyone holds in such high esteem — we didn't want to shatter the illusion but rather let the audience invoke their own memories and experiences of what Michael Jordan means."
In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Affleck explained more about his decision to only feature brief cameos of a faceless Jordan.
"This is a movie is about an icon, about somebody who is so meaningful that the minute I show you somebody and tell you, 'Hey, that's Michael Jordan,' you’re just going to go, 'no it isn't'," he explained.
"I know who Michael Jordan is, I know what he is. And not only that, the only actor who could play Michael Jordan was a little too old to play this part, and we probably couldn’t afford him. But the idea was, if I show you… you know that's not Michael Jordan. And now everything else is fake."
Affleck has also revealed that the real Michael Jordan had one stipulation about the making of Air: He wanted Viola Davis to play his mother Deloris.
"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?'" Affleck said when he introduced the premiere of Air at the South By Southwest (SXSW) event in March (via Variety).
He continued: "Michael Jordan, for those of you who don't know, is one of the most intimidating, impressive men you'll ever see in your life. He told me about his father and then he talked about his mother. It was the first time I saw this look cross his face. It was a look of reverence, of awe, of love, and gratitude and innocence.
"He said: 'None of this would have ever happened without my mother.' I said: 'Who would you like to play your mom?' He said: 'Well, it has to be Viola Davis.'"
Affleck was clearly impressed with Jordan's choice.
"Viola Davis is the best actor I've ever seen. This is a hard business. It's hard to know if you're successful. It's hard to know if you've accomplished something," he said.
"But honest to God, I always felt that if I was a director one day, and I had Viola Davis in a movie, that would really be something. That would mean the world to me. And it does."
Air is available to watch now on Prime Video.
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