Chris Tucker has returned to Hollywood with the new movie AIR, but getting him back in front of the camera was no easy feat.
The actor shared with PEOPLE at the premiere of the film during SXSW that Ben Affleck was the reason he came back.
“My agent called me and said they got a movie about something to do with Michael Jordan, and they want you to play this character called Howard White,” he explained.
He continued, “There wasn’t no words, it wasn’t no character, it wasn’t there in the script. I said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s my friend.’ So I called him [White] and found out that it was, he was in this movie and I said, ‘Whoa man, but they said it’s not much, but you know, I’m considering it cause it’s you.’ “
He then went on to explain that conversations with Affleck and the producer, Matt Damon helped push him further to taking the role.
“Then I talked to Ben and Matt and they said, ‘Hey man, we want you to come in, have fun. This is what we are doing,” he shared. “It’s like making a movie with your friends’. And I said, ‘Okay.’ I love Michael Jordan. it’s my friend Howard White. Ben said I can do whatever I want to do. I love the brand, the Jordan brand. Let’s do it.”
Tucker’s last film was 2016’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.