EXCLUSIVE: Chris Tucker & Matthew Maher Open Up About Their New Film ‘AIR’
Amazon Studios is gearing up to release its new film, AIR tomorrow, April 5 in theaters. To celebrate the release of the new film, we got the chance to hear from two of the stars of the film, Chris Tucker and Matthew Maher.
In the chat, Tucker and Maher talk brining Nike executive, Howard White and Nike shoe designer, Peter Moore to life on screen, Tucker’s friendship with the film’s director, Ben Affleck and his costar, Matt Damon. and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
What was it like bringing Howard White to life on screen?
Tucker: “It was so much fun. Ben [Affleck] told me right up front, it’s like making a movie with friends. Making a movie with friends and having fun, and I knew Howard White, so I had all access to him, talking with him for hours, and everybody he mentored like Charles Barkley and people from his childhood, he played hop scotch with and teachers and coaches. I thought it was just going to be a quick conversation with him. He said, ‘No, no, no, hold up. I got somebody else. I need you to talk to them.’ I really got a lot of information together to embody his spirit, his dialect, and put it all together and put it in the character. And everybody said he was like Confucius. He was just this nice guy, thought about the world glass half full instead of half empty. So always I want the character to be positive and just be a lot of fun.”
What about for you Matthew? Did you have to do much research when it came to bringing Moore to life?
Maher: “There wasn’t so much time to dive in and weirdly, Peter Moore just passed away a week before I was offered the movie, and I definitely did dive in and I read a lot about him and I watched documentaries where he was featured. What struck me was looking at his designs and looking at his ideas, which were so amazing and ahead of their time, and then he’s talking and he’s just a regular guy and he’s talking about, ‘Yeah, there was too much reg. And then we decided I could just leave it that way.’ You know what I mean? Very direct. I thought the biggest parallel was listening to pro-athletes talk about what they do, which is like, ‘Well, we just kept,’ even though they’re doing these amazing things, a genius is not, doesn’t always express himself very well when he’s talking about what he’s genius at.”
Was that hard, keeping the genius at bay?
Maher: “It was hard in a way. I decided not to try and get into his genius mind, but really play the character that was written in the script who is a genius but is also at a crossroads in his life. He’s going through a midlife crisis and he’s waiting to have something come along where he can really apply himself. And what is really clear from the documentary and that the script captures really well is that he’s a brilliant collaborator and he’s not precious about his ideas. The idea itself is bigger than he is. And that’s what really drew me through the script, too.
The scenes where they’re working together really felt like authentic problem solving in a way. I really appreciated the energy of those scenes. And there’s a meta aspect too, because that’s also what it was working on the movie where it’s sort of the best minds just problem solving. The creativity and the genius is just sort of happening because everybody working on the movie is so good at what they do. And so it’s really just like, are we going to do this or this? It’s very engaging. I think for me, I just sort of lean into that in terms of thinking of about the character and not try to even touch imagining what it would be like to create the things that he created.”
Chris, can you talk a little about your friendship with Ben and Matt [Damon]?
“You know what, Ben and Matt, man, they’re legends and in their own right. When I heard they wanted to work with me, that’s just a good thing, compliment working with this guy [Affleck]. He didn’t have to beg too, too much. Because I wanted to work with them guys. I mean, I remember being on the set like, ‘Man, these are the big dogs. I’m ready to rock and roll.’ So it was a lot of fun. Just a lot of comfort. Ben and Matt made it so comfortable. One time they came to my trailer, like I said earlier, man, we’re just having this friends having fun and that’s all they had to say.”
Make sure to check out AIR when its released globally!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
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