Matt Damon
Sonny Vaccaro
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Air (2023) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Apr 5, 2023 · Air: Directed by Ben Affleck. With Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Chris Messina. Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.
- (145K)
- Drama, Sport
- Ben Affleck
- 2023-04-05
- Katherine Schaffstall
- Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro. Damon stars in Air was Vaccaro, a former sports marketing executive who tried to sign Jordan to a deal with Nike by winning over the athlete’s mother.
- Ben Affleck as Phil Knight. Affleck stars in the film as Knight, the co-founder of Nike Inc. who previously served as the chairman and CEO of the company.
- Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan. Deloris Jordan is the athlete’s mother. During the preproduction process, Jordan asked Affleck to cast Davis as his mom. While talking to THR, Davis explained that Deloris “brokered” her son’s “deal to get him a huge stake in the shoe and in turn, protected her son’s legacy.”
- Julius Tennon as James R. Jordan Sr. James R. Jordan Sr. was the NBA star’s father and the husband of Deloris. He died in 1993 when he was shot while taking a nap in his car.
- Matt Damon Is Sonny Vaccaro
- Viola Davis Is Deloris Jordan
- Ben Affleck Is Phil Knight
- Chris Tucker Is Howard H. White
- Chris Messina Is David Falk
- Jason Bateman Is Rob Strasser
- Marlon Wayans Is George Raveling
- Julius Tennon Is James Jordan
- Damian Delano Young Is Michael Jordan
Affleck's longtime friend and longtime collaborator plays Nike marketing executive and basketball guru Sonny Vaccaro, who convinced Nike to sign Jordan with an unprecedented Air Jordan-birthing deal before his NBA career had even tipped off. "The irony is...I don't know a damn thing about selling a shoe," Vaccaro told PBS in 2011. "But I honestly h...
Affleck cast the EGOT-winner as Jordan's mother Deloris at the insistence of the basketball superstar himself. "Michael Jordan was very adamant that the only person who was fit to play his mother was the best actor in the world — Viola Davis," Affleck told EW. "I was like, 'Well, okay... Mike, there's two lines in the script right now that the char...
The Air director plays Nike chief Phil Knight, who co-founded the company — originally called Blue Ribbon Sports — in the mid-'60s. Knight started off selling shoes from the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant, ultimately building the company into one of the world's most successful sports apparel brands. After finishing Air, Affleck showed the movie to K...
In his first big-screen appearance since 2016's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, the Rush Hour star plays Howard H. White, Nike's primary liaison with NBA stars including Jordan and Charles Barkley. Fortuitously for Tucker, the actor and standup comedian is a friend of White. "It was like kismet to me," Tucker told EW. "[Howard] had me talking to p...
Having previously worked with Affleck on both Argo and 2016's Live by Night, Messina did not need to read the Air script twice before agreeing to play Jordan's agent David Falk. In fact, he didn't even need to read it once. "When Ben calls you up and asks you to do something, and you get the cast list, you're like, 'I don't have to read it,'" the a...
The Arrested Development star returns to the world of business as Nike VP of Marketing Rob Strasser (official photos of whom are not available), who played a vital role in making the deal with Jordan. "I absolutely fell in love with [Strasser] when he actually made the first presentation of the Jordan thing, the Air Jordan concept," Jordan said to ...
Affleck cast Wayans as basketball coach George Raveling, a mentor to Jordan, and encouraged him to improvise. "I mean, it's hard. I rarely stick to my own lines," Wayans told EW. "Like, seriously, there has been a time when I had a movie [and was] rewriting everything Iwrote. So it felt good that that was welcome."
Deloris Jordan's husband, and Michael's father, is played by Davis' real-life spouse, whose previous credits include Dazed & Confused and the TV show Criminal Minds. "It was easy to step into these characters," Tennon told EW. "It was just a joy to work with Ben, and Matt, and the whole crew of these guys. The set was alive the whole time."
Newcomer Young portrays the youthful Jordan, although Affleck routinely shies away from showing his face, when he features him at all. "Jordan is too big," Affleck told The Hollywood Reporter, explaining why he stayed away from foregrounding the sports star. "He exists above and around the story, but if you ever concretize him, if you ever say, 'Ye...
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- Greg Macarthur
- Senior Features Writer
- Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro. Matt Damon leads as John Paul Vincent "Sonny" Vaccaro, a Nike marketing and sales representative tasked with saving his drowning basketball department.
- Ben Affleck as Phil Knight. Ben Affleck co-stars as the co-founder and chairman of Nike, Phil Knight, who was also the CEO at the time when the movie takes place and is currently one of the wealthiest people in the world.
- Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan. Viola Davis plays the impactful role of Michael Jordan's real-life mother, Deloris Jordan, who convinced Michael to take the deal with Nike after the young star expressed apprehension about the deal.
- Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser. Jason Bateman takes on the role of Rob Strasser, who was Nike's marketing director at the time the movie takes place and Sonny Vacaro's supervisor.
May 13, 2023 · The Air cast features Matt Damon, Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck. This info article contains minor spoilers and character details for Ben Affleck’s 2023 Amazon movie. Check out more streaming guides in Vague Visages’ Know the Cast section. Air takes place in 1984. As Nike executives search for an NBA brand ambassador, a talent scout targets ...
Discover 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.
