Ben Affleck, who plays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the new movie, “Air,” has been making the rounds talking about the experience of directing the movie, which tells the story of how the Oregon-based company made a game-changing deal with Michael Jordan to launch the Air Jordan brand, which helped establish Nike’s reputation as a power player in the athletic apparel world.
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In an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday, Affleck teed up a much-ballyhooed cameo from his friend, and Kimmel’s longtime faux nemesis, Matt Damon, who stars as former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro in “Air.” But before that happened, Affleck also talked about what it was like playing a figure as famous as Knight.
Kimmel started out by saying, “I don’t know if people are aware of how funny this movie is,” referring to “Air,” which also stars Viola Davis as Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris, and Julius Tennon as Jordan’s father, James.
Hinting that Affleck’s portrayal of Knight may be more comic than the mogul might have expected, Kimmel asked, “Did Phil Knight like the way you played him?”
“Look, he’s an interesting guy,” Affleck said, going on to say that, when you work some place, “you kind of want to make fun of the boss. Right? That’s just part of it.”
Referring to social media having fun with photos of him, Affleck said, “I’ve been the subject of an occasional meme,” and “I know how it goes.”
In contemplating Knight, Affleck said, he thought it was funny that Knight is “sort of Buddhist, but he’s a capitalist.” And for the sake of the narrative in “Air,” Affleck said, “there has to be somebody kind of pressuring against this deal.”
Affleck said, “I was very, very confident” in how Knight is characterized in “Air,” “right up to the point where they were, like, ‘We think you should go up to Oregon, and show Nike the movie, and show Phil.’ And I was, like, ‘Sure, terrific.’ And then I went up there, I flew up to Oregon, and then I went up to the theater, and all of a sudden, I felt like the guy who’s been sent in to negotiate with Isis.”
“Honor and respect to Phil, and what he did, and making this deal, and his bravery and the importance of Nike,” Affleck said, “but it was fun.” The movie is funny, Affleck continued. “I tried to be funny” playing Knight, he said, then added that “it didn’t seem that funny when he was in the room.”
As Kimmel and the audience laughed, Affleck said, “And I thought, like, maybe the thing to do is just run.” On a less comical note, Affleck said, Knight was “remarkably gracious.”
The movie, Affleck said, is set in about 1984, “at a time when the company was an underdog,” and “it was a bunch of friends kind of crashing into each other, and various ideas, trying to put something together, and arguing and debating.”
Knight, Affleck said, seemed to be remembering a time in his life that was kind of a romantic period, where things hadn’t yet all come together, and you’re still risking something. “And you’re there with your friends….He seemed really moved by it.” Knight noted that, “of course, you got a lot wrong,” Affleck said, but the movie is “not a documentary.”
Kimmel praised the performances of the cast, which includes Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, and Chris Tucker as Howard White.
That led into a bit in which Affleck noted that Kimmel wasn’t talking about Damon, Affleck’s friend and collaborator on such projects as “Good Will Hunting,” which won both actors an Oscar for best original screenplay. The joke played off the mock feud Kimmel supposedly has with Damon, which grew out of Kimmel ending his shows with a joke about offering “apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time.”
Matt Damon made a Zoom cameo on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday, during a segment when guest Ben Affleck was discussing the movie, “Air,” which reunites the “Good Will Hunting” stars. ABC
So, after Affleck supposedly phoned Damon, the actor appeared in a Zoom-style screen, crowing about finally being a guest on Kimmel’s show. Making fun of Zoom glitches, the call froze, and Damon kept reappearing, with goofy filters giving him weird hair styles and looks.
Once that was over, Kimmel played a clip from “Air,” in which Affleck’s Knight responds to Damon, as Vaccaro, who suggests the brand name “Air Jordan.” Affleck’s Knight looks unimpressed, and says maybe the name will grow on him.
“I have no reason to believe that Phil Knight did not like the Air Jordan idea,” Affleck said, adding that, “A lot of it’s just fiction.”
“Air” opens in theaters on April 5. It will later be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, though a streaming date has not yet been announced.