EXCLUSIVE: Marlon Wayans Talks Playing George Raveling in ‘AIR’

Marlon Wayans stars in Amazon Studios new film, AIR as basketball legend, George Raveling. We got the chance to hear from the star about his role in the film, why people should see the film, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.

Let’s talk your role as George Raveling, can you share a little about the process of bringing that role to life?

“I was the first one to shoot, so I got the call on Friday, and we are swimming on Monday. So, YouTube was my friend. Crash course on YouTube. And George Raveling. I learned a lot about him. I learned he was a fantastic man. He himself was the first black coach to win a national championship, and he coached on the Olympic team, and he was from Jersey. And so, there was a lot that I kind of picked up. And when I read the monologue, and the fact that that was real, and that he still has the ‘I have a dream speech’ in his possession, I just thought that it was an amazing character to play.

And the more you research, the better you can do in terms of your performance. But what I love was when we went on set, Matt [Damon] and Ben [Affleck] was like, we’re not impersonating, it’s not, but you can bring you to it. And that’s always, for an actor, the best thing you can do, is when I can mix that person with my emotions and what you bring. And then the script was already written so beautifully, but we got to play, and then I could get out of my head and really have fun. And that’s what it was. When I left the set I just felt like if every day on that set felt like the first day, that’s going to be a magical movie.”

But Raveling was more than just a coach to Michael Jordan to all the players. He was an advocate as well.

“Yeah. Raveling is an amazing dude with an amazing story. He actually was at a young age down there at that, not that march, but at that rally, and he had a long, long career of that. And just to be able to know that you’re doing a movie about, I mean, it’s such a small part, but they say there’s no such thing as small roles, only small actors.

With this one, it was a small but pivotal role. If you feel it, when you look at the script and you go, I got to do this. So many times you can think about a scene, you’re like, I ain’t doing that scene. But then you look at the meat within the scene and the character that you’re portraying, and then you look at the whole picture and you just go, it’s something I had to do. There’s no way you don’t do something like this. The opportunity to play with all these legends and just go bring your best you. And there’s a great scene, and I’m very, very proud that I’m to be a part of this picture.”

Why do you think people should see this film?

“You just feel good. No, you leave the movie and you feel good as a human with an everyday like just story of we all have dreams, we all have something that we want to do. Everybody tells us we cannot do it. And just the fact that this man made that happen, and look at the iconic thing that was spawned from that Michael Jordan signing with Nike to this shoe, to this brand, to this thing that changed pop culture and in a huge way. I think it’s a very powerful movie. It started with something small like a person with a idea and a gut feeling to make something happen. And we all, as people, every artist up here had an inspiration, a gut feeling about what we wanted to do in this lifetime, and everybody telling us no, and we every day make it happen.”

AIR will be released to theaters on April 5.

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Photo credit: ANA CARBALLOSA © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC