Matt Damon and Marlon Wayans share a laugh over a blistering-hot moment with Ben Affleck on the set of "Air," their new film about Nike's first shoe deal with Michael Jordan. They also joked with Narcity's Josh Elliott about the perfect way to make a parody of their movie.
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00:00and I look over and Ben's just sweating and he has like sweat in his chest. I was like,
00:06this dude's serious. Hi guys, how are you? What's up? How's it going, man? Good. Matt,
00:12I want to start with you. You know, obviously you and Ben go way back, but here you get to
00:17work with him as your director. I'm willing to bet my career on Michael Jordan. Come on, man.
00:22You ask me what I do here. This is what I do. I find you players and I feel it this time.
00:29I'm curious. Did you learn anything new about him from going through that experience?
00:35I don't think so. I mean, I knew he was a great director, so that news wasn't surprising to me.
00:41And you know, we've worked so much together over the years in various capacities that
00:47this felt like a natural progression, you know, it didn't.
00:51You know, plus when I act opposite him, he gives me notes anyway. So, you know,
00:54that wasn't a change. No, it felt very natural to be directed by him. But boy, he is really good at
01:04it. I thought it was the real deal. And, you know, as an actor, as a director, he was really good.
01:09But I'll tell you what messed me up. When he actually picked up a 90 pound camera and held
01:16it like this and was literally getting, and we was doing a long take. It must have been like
01:22an eight minute take. And I look over and Ben's just sweating and he has like sweat in his chest.
01:28I was like, this dude's serious.
01:31Marlon, you remember how hot it was in that room? Because it was the middle of summer.
01:35And it was, you know, in those scenes, whenever you have a scene like that,
01:38you know, they turn the air conditioners off, right? Because it's no good for sound. And so
01:43it was cooking in this scene. Ben's trying to shoot the scene and, you know, and he's like,
01:48OK, start again. So Marlon and I are doing a bunch of them on repeat.
01:52By the end of it, Ben was just like soaking wet.
01:54Halfway through, you just see the camera go.
01:59Well, Marlon, maybe you can tell me, like, what was it about joining this that made you say yes?
02:03Like, I heard you jumped at it. And obviously it's such a good time with everybody on set.
02:07You know, if I had to equate this movie to a basketball team, it's the 92 Bulls. I gotta,
02:14I gotta jump on the 92 Bulls. It's just, you know, you got Ben, you got Matt, you got
02:20Tucker, you got, you know, Chris with this such an amazing job. Bateman, I'm a big fan of his.
02:26And then Viola Davis, I'd be a fool to say no. So, I mean, yeah.
02:32That's how I felt too. That's literally how I felt, Josh. I couldn't, this was one of the,
02:37I mean, and I said, I have not, I've never had a better time in terms of like,
02:41just completely all encompassing, like, because the work was so fun,
02:45but the people were just so great.
02:47Well, yeah, you basically had a front row seat for everybody, right? Like,
02:50everyone gets to work off of you. And it's just like, yeah.
02:54I showed up and I was opposite, like, Muhammad Ali every day. Nobody was like,
02:58I had a great heavyweight across from me no matter, no matter what day it was. It was,
03:02it was unbelievable.
03:03Well, I gotta ask you, I know you prepare a lot for your roles. I'm curious how much
03:07research went into this versus how much getting used to that belly?
03:12Well, it was a lot of, it was really about, you know, capturing the spirit of these guys. Like,
03:19Ben didn't want impersonations. He didn't want, you know, and he talked to all of us about that.
03:23You know, he's like, it's more about what this time meant to them. And, you know,
03:27I spoke to Sonny a good deal about it and his nostalgia for this time and
03:33how much he loved these guys and how, how they were like, you know, they were friends.
03:37They were kind of a misfit, you know, they're a band of kind of renegades. And, and they did
03:41this incredible thing that totally bucked conventional wisdom and it changed the world.
03:45And so that's what we were trying to capture, that spirit.
03:49Oh, absolutely. And Marlon, I want to ask you, if someone were to come to you and pitch you
03:53another shoe story, maybe about those big red boots, then I hear you like those. Would you
03:58be into that?
03:58I'm going to do the big red boots as a parody to this movie.
04:06I'm going to do that story. That is definitely the story I would do as a filmmaker.
04:12If you do that parody, you know, you have to cast all of us. We all have to come in.