Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the dream team they assembled for ‘Air’

Air, the drama about the real-life battle Nike had to sign Michael Jordan, made more than $20 million amid tough competition at the box office over its first weekend, what with the monster hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The film is being embraced by critics and audiences, with the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes giving it a Critics Score of 92 and an Audience Score of 98.

Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Matt Damon co-star in the movie they co-produced, with Affleck directing. The latter explains how he was able to wear so many hats.

“For me, it was made … so much easier because this is a group of people who either I had known for a long, long time, [have] an enormous amount of respect and regard for, Matt Maher, Chris Messina, and obviously Matt Damon and Jason Bateman, all of whom … I’ve worked with multiple times and know well and adore and admire, and people who had been my sort of life’s goal to work with.”

He adds of co-star and script contributor Chris Tucker, “I think Chris can attest to the number of times I’ve harassed him like [if] he passed me by in a hotel lobby. ‘Chris! Chris! Chris! I want to do a movie with youuu!'”

Damon agrees. “Marlon [Wayans], Chris [Tucker] … they’re writers, as well as actors … they’re filmmakers. And Jason Bateman’s a director-producer, you know, so we really lean on our actors.”

He adds, “Part of our process has always been from Good Will Hunting all the way ’til today [is] … lean into what your actor’s bringing; the actor always is in the moment and always knows. And we had these conversations with Viola [Davis], like … ‘What do you feel like here?’ You know, because that’s always the way to the best scene.”

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