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For a movie about Michael Jordan‘s record-breaking shoe deal with Nike in 1984, it may come as a surprise to some to find out that the six-time NBA champion is barely in Air. As it turns out, this was a very conscious decision made by director and star Ben Affleck to not show the actor who plays Jordan's face.
Air tells the story of the 1984 shoe deal, primarily following Nike's Sonny Vaccaro (played by Matt Damon) as he attempts to sign who he believes to be a prodigy in Jordan. It's not as simple as it sounds, though, and with he's faced with a number of obstacles including (and not limited to) sports agents, Jordan's family, and Nike's co-founder/CEO Phil Knight (Affleck).
Throughout the film, it's noticeable that Jordan's face is never shown. Archive footage is shown throughout including certain plays from his college and pro career, but anytime he's shown in the film, it's usually of his backside and the cameras never reveal his face. Damian Delano Young plays Jordan in the film and says a handful of lines, but the handling of showing him felt very similar to how last year's She Said handled the portrayal of a very infamous film producer (albeit under different circumstances).
Speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment, Affleck reflected on why we never see Jordan's face: “Michael's just too famous and too meaningful and too important and too much of an icon for me to believe, particularly given that there is only a couple of moments in the film, that any actor could convince you that they, in fact, were Michael Jordan. [Just] his silhouette is recognizable around the world. And so I thought it was actually more interesting that he exists above and outside, kind of in the clouds above everybody [and] everyone around him.”
Most interestingly, Affleck acknowledged the fact that Air is not the story of Jordan, despite how it may seem that way on the surface, “And also I'm mindful of the fact that this is not the Michael Jordan story. We didn't go get his rights. He didn't get paid, like, ‘Hey, we're gonna tell your story, your childhood, your thing.’ This is not that. And so I didn't think it was really appropriate, frankly, to use that. This is a story about other people. It's a sort of a fable using that story… You know, you're f***ing around with an extremely important figure in American history, and I wanted to just handle that as respectfully and carefully as I could.”
Air has been a bit from Amazon Studios — who pivoted to a full theatrical release of the film — and Affleck. The film holds a 95% approval rate from 151 critics and a 98% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes — making it the perfect feel-good story to see in theaters.
Air is in theaters now.
