Mary Steenburgen on the magic of pickleball: 'When I’m playing, I catch myself grinning like an idiot'
While at first glance The Dink may seem like a movie about pickleball, its stars say it’s really about discovering joy and finding your place in the world. Mary Steenburgen and Jake Johnson chat to James Mottram about lost souls, trash-talking pensioners and working with tennis legend John McEnroe
‘I think it’s the fastest growing sport in the world,’ remarks actress Mary Steenburgen. She’s talking pickleball, the tennis-like game that has players battling it out with paddles and a hollow plastic ball. It’s also at the heart of her new Apple TV movie The Dink, directed by Josh Greenbaum, in which her character, divorcee Candace, introduces a washed-up tennis pro named Dusty (Jake Johnson) to the sport.
‘She’s claiming her own life and discovering what she loves,’ explains Steenburgen. ‘And one of the things she loves is pickleball. She doesn’t really have a partner, and then she meets up with someone who’s as much of a lost soul as she is. For her, finding a pickleball partner is her very special goal and means a lot. And it sounds silly, but it gives her joy. And I think her life had been missing joy.’
This joy has spread to the stars themselves. The 73-year-old Oscar-winning actress, known for such beloved comedies as Parenthood, Elf and Step Brothers, has become such a fan that she recently hosted eight members of the London-based Lemon Pickleball club (all friends of her son, who also plays) at her home in Los Angeles. ‘When I’m playing, I catch myself grinning like an idiot, just from the fun of it.’
Johnson, whose credits include Jurassic World, the animated Spider-Verse movies and TV’s New Girl, smiles at the thought of his co-star’s newfound passion for pickleball. ‘Mary Steenburgen loves it… she will play forever.’ Initially, Johnson was a little sceptical. ‘I had never played before I signed on, and I thought I found the game a little embarrassing,’ he admits. But then he got into it, thanks to his actor buddy, Justin Long.
Famed for films like Drag Me To Hell and Barbarian, Long is a pickleball nut. ‘So he’s become a pickleball buddy. He played at a court in Altadena where I went with him, and it was him and all these older people, and they all knew him and they knew all these personal things about his life. And I was like, “Justin, I’m literally making this movie, man!”’
The origins of The Dink came when its screenwriter Sean Clements joined a pickleball club in Beverly Hills. ‘These older women always beat him [Dusty] and talked trash to him,’ says Johnson. ‘He used to be a great tennis player and it really frustrated him. But then he became friends with them and they would invite him out to coffee; and he would feel really weird, but he also wanted to go, because he wanted to be in a group.’
Whatever you make of the premise, The Dink is bursting with talent. Another Oscar winner, the formidable Ed Harris, plays Dusty’s father Chuck who owns the country club where, much to his chagrin, pickleball is becoming a thing. ‘His intensity is so palpable,’ says Johnson. ‘And he’s not of the new generation of gratitude and sweetness and optimism, which is something I encounter a lot on sets, even when they’re empty words of gratitude or empty words of validation and compliments. When Ed’s not happy, you feel it!’
The film is also stacked full of comedy gods, from Chloe Fineman and Patton Oswalt to Ben Stiller, who both produces and cameos and is clearly channelling vibes from his earlier American sports comedy Dodgeball. ‘He’s one of our true masters,’ says Johnson. If that’s not enough, tennis stars Andy Roddick and John McEnroe also appear. While it’s tempting to yell ‘you cannot be serious!’, Steenburgen calls it ‘a pinch-me moment’ working with the once-volatile champ. ‘All the times I watched the young John McEnroe came flooding back.’
At the core of The Dink, says Steenburgen, is a story about claiming your place in the world. ‘Whether it’s a guy proving himself to his father or proving himself to himself; whether it’s proving you can be good at a sport, or just that you can meet people and have joy by playing that sport. If you lose your marriage and your husband and your status and all the things that you thought made you who you were, you are still able to find meaning in life again. It might be rocky, but you can do it.’
The Dink is on Apple TV from Friday 24 July.