Xuenou > Movies > “It Was The Most Moving Moment For Me In Any Movie I’ve Made” – Ben Affleck And Chris Tucker Share Their Experiences On Creating The New Film “Air”
“It Was The Most Moving Moment For Me In Any Movie I’ve Made” – Ben Affleck And Chris Tucker Share Their Experiences On Creating The New Film “Air”
"It Was The Most Moving Moment For Me In Any Movie I've Made" – Ben Affleck And Chris Tucker Share Their Experiences On Creating The New Film "Air","It was the most moving moment for me in any movie I've made."

“It Was The Most Moving Moment For Me In Any Movie I’ve Made” – Ben Affleck And Chris Tucker Share Their Experiences On Creating The New Film “Air”

One of the greatest stories in sports hits our screens this year. AIR tells the story of the shoe above all shoes was created: the Air Jordans.

Amazon Studios

It’s not easy to tell the story of a legend, so we sat down with film director Ben Affleck and the comeback king Chris Tucker to discuss the elements of relationships and race that take place within the future blockbuster hit.

Warner Bros

Speaking on marginalised communities, Chris, you play a role where you’re bridging the gap between a “white” company and Black athletes. I saw that when your character was communicating with Michael Jordan’s parents, Viola and Julius, there was a tone shift, was that something you could relate to? Did you pull from any real-life experiences where you had to change the way you speak depending on the people around you?

Chris: You know what, no. But talking to Howard I learned he went to an all-white high school and he became class president in the ’60s. So I was pulling from that more than anything, like how did he do that? I was talking to his teachers and they were like “everybody loved Howard” and it didn’t hurt that he was an All-American basketball player. Everybody loved him because he was winning on the basketball team, but he was also a nice guy and he had a reputation for being a nice guy. You can’t get a voted class president if you’re messing around and doing bad things. So I pulled from that. If you are who you are, no matter where you are, people are going to like you and they’re going to not like you, but just be consistent and, try to be a good person, you’re gonna get doors that are gonna open for you.

Amazon Studios

Ben:  I think that’s a very astute question, and it’s something that I became attuned to as I started looking into it the film. Interestingly enough, Howard wasn’t in the screenplay and it was Michael who said, “This is a really meaningful person to put in here”. I knew that Nike wasn’t all white, so where are these characters? When I look at companies, I’m obviously not African American so I don’t have or share that experience, but I have seen companies do precisely what you described. They focus their business on African American communities because those communities are so extraordinarily successful in the areas they have historically been permitted to succeed and excluded from others. So, as such, those being the principal avenues for success, these companies who now seek to profit from relationships with those athletes often find that they are successful if they have people who work there, with whom that person who shows up can identify.

When I looked at the culture of Nike and I looked at where basketball was and the people who were going into the NBA. A lot of people described it (Nike) as a white hippie marathoning running company. Chris alludes to that in the beginning (of the film) and to create a sense of communication, to feel spoken to or heard, I’d be most comfortable with the person who I felt shared some experience with me, Howard is that person. He’s as Chris described enormously charismatic, warm, empathetic, and kind. In some ways, he’s a cultural interlocutor because he then can turn around and understand co-corporate speak, which is not to say that’s unique to white people, but it is unique to corporations.

So what you see is Nike was really trying to use the identity and voice of these athletes. For that to be done appropriately and effectively by having Howard, and I’m sure other people play these roles in companies, you have Michael communicating his authentic stuff and that is what is projected because really he’s defining his identity, right? No one can control that. We’re gonna attach this to your identity then that’s who you are and he has to be given the latitude to make that expression. 

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I think the authenticity definitely came through, so the work was definitely done, especially with the Black family dynamic between the mum and the dad

Ben: That’s all credit to Julius (Tennon) and Viola. I was like this, “you two are married – whatever day you’re having, it doesn’t matter because that’s one day in your marriage.” Good day, bad day, we have those days in marriage and it was real, and a guy like Julius just comes alive to audiences because they just see how marriages kind of do this. 

BuzzFeed

AIR is in cinemas now!


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