Ahead of the release of Ben Affleck's fifth directorial effort Air next month, the actor-turned-director has shared why the film, which tells the story of salesman Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) and his signing of a then-newcomer Michael Jordan to Nike, contains a deliberate lack of its main muse. While the film boasts such star power as Damon and Affleck—who appears as Nike founder Phil Knight—alongside Viola Davis and real-life husband Julius Tennon in the role of Jordan's parents, the character of Jordan appears only from behind (Damian Young) while Jordan himself is notably absent from the film altogether.
Joined by Damon, Davis, Tennon, and Matthew Maher who also appears in the film as Peter Moore, Affleck spoke on the decision to not include Jordan as a larger character at a Q&A following a special screening of Air, explaining "I did not ever plan on it, because I never thought for a second—hey, Michael is so magnificent, so famous, the whole reason why he represents and means what he does in terms of greatness and excellence, is because he’s so, so enigmatic and majestic and identifiable immediately, by his carriage and demeanor and what we’ve seen him do physically" with Affleck believing "the one sure way to ruin the movie and have the audience understand that the whole thing is a fraud is to point the camera at anybody that’s not Michael Jordan and say, ‘Hey, that’s Michael Jordan!'"
Affleck went on to express how, with star power as recognizable as Jordan's, audiences would immediately identify any depiction of him as a "knockoff," thus the only person capable of playing Jordan would be Jordan himself—“the only person who could play Michael Jordan, as I’ve said to him, is too old now to play Michael Jordan.”
Though Jordan Doesn't Appear On-Screen in Air, he Played a Major Role Behind the Scenes
While Jordan does not appear in the film himself, Affleck revealed the athlete had crucial involvement in crafting the story through meetings between the pair. The director told The Hollywood Reporter how Jordan "was the one who told me about [Nike executive] Howard White, who wasn’t in the original script", as well as how until Jordan opened up to him about his mother, Davis' character also "wasn’t really in the script." It was also reported by Variety that Jordan was in fact the one who insisted upon Davis' casting as his mother Deloris.
Following its debut screening at SXSW, Air is in theaters on April 5. You can watch the trailer down below.