Why Mary Steenburgen Said Yes to The Dink—And Why Pickleball Players Will Love It

When Hollywood announces a movie about pickleball, most players have the same reaction:

“Please don’t make us the punchline.”

It’s a fair concern.

Pickleball has spent years fighting stereotypes. Those of us who play know it’s much more than a game. It’s community. It’s competition. It’s healing. It’s friendship. It’s second chances.

After watching The Dink, I can confidently say this movie understands the heart of pickleball.

It’s also one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in quite some time.

I laughed far more than I expected—not because Hollywood was poking fun at pickleball, but because the comedy comes from the characters themselves. The writing is sharp, the performances are outstanding, and nearly every cast member has moments that steal the scene.

What makes The Dink work is the balance between humor and heart. The laughs draw you in, but the story keeps you there.

Beneath the comedy is something much more familiar to anyone who’s spent time on a pickleball court. It’s a story about loneliness, identity, aging, family, and finding your way back to yourself. Pickleball isn’t the joke. It’s the reason the story works.

Mary Steenburgen Was Already a Pickleball Player

I recently had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen ahead of the film’s Apple TV+ premiere, and one thing became clear almost immediately: she didn’t take this role because pickleball was trending.

She took it because she had already fallen in love with the sport.

When I asked whether she had ever picked up a paddle before filming, she smiled and immediately began talking about Martha’s Vineyard and the coach who introduced her to the game.

“I did,” she told me. “There’s an amazing coach there named Connie McHugh. She inspired me to want to learn it. This was only about two months in, and I was deeply in love with it.”

Then an unexpected call changed everything.

Steenburgen explained that she had already planned to do another film when her representatives called with one more opportunity.

“They said, ‘It’s a film starring Jake Johnson, produced by Ben Stiller, directed by Josh Greenbaum… and it’s about pickleball.’ And I went, ‘Fine, we’re doing that one!’”

Her team reminded her she probably ought to read the script first.

“They said, ‘Well, shouldn’t you read it?’ And I said, ‘I’ll read it… but I’m doing that one!’”

Her enthusiasm says it all. This wasn’t someone learning pickleball just for a movie role. Mary already knew what makes the sport so special.

It’s one of the reasons the film feels so authentic.

Steenburgen doesn’t play someone discovering pickleball for the first time. She captures the same sense of excitement and connection that so many players experience after picking up a paddle.

When I mentioned that Connie McHugh had become something of a local legend in the pickleball community, Steenburgen couldn’t have agreed more.

“She really is an extraordinary teacher,” she said. “More importantly, she taught me heart-wise that someone my age who had never done this before could go ahead, try it, and do it.”

That feeling may be the heart of The Dink.

More Than a Movie About Pickleball

Without giving away the story, the film follows Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson), a former tennis prodigy whose world has become much smaller than he ever imagined. Through an unlikely partnership with Candace, played by Steenburgen, pickleball becomes more than a way to recover from an injury—it becomes a catalyst for rediscovering purpose, relationships, and joy.

As our conversation continued, it became clear that those themes weren’t just written into the script. They reflected Steenburgen’s own experience.

“I struggled over my loss of friends,” she shared while reflecting on the passing of her friend Diane. She admitted that she still has “a whole phone full of crazy voice messages” from her that she can’t bring herself to erase or even listen to yet.

During that difficult time, she found comfort in the friendships she built through Book Club, but she told me pickleball unexpectedly became another source of healing.

“Pickleball was the other thing that has brought especially wonderful women into my life.”

She described playing twice a week with a group of women she likely never would have met otherwise.

“I realized I would never know these women or have met them otherwise, but I feel so close to them, and it’s through this sport.”

If you’ve ever shown up to open play knowing no one and left with a group of new friends, you understand what she means.

Why Pickleball Brings People Together

It’s also why The Dink feels different.

The movie certainly plays with the tennis-versus-pickleball rivalry, but it never asks audiences to choose sides.

I asked Steenburgen whether she thought movies like this could help ease some of the real-world tension over shared court space.

“There’s room for both sports in the world,” she said. “Sports are great. We don’t have to pit one against the other.”

She smiled as she talked about tennis with genuine admiration.

“If you’re a good tennis player, what a beautiful, elegant, classic champion sport that is.”

She explained what she loves most about pickleball.

“If you want to have a lot more fun… if you know that you’re probably too old to become very good at tennis, try pickleball. Because you’d be surprised at what you can do.”

For Steenburgen, the sport has become about much more than learning a new game.

Referencing Book Club, she reflected on one of its memorable lines: “I am not going to go gently into that good night.”

“Why should you die before you die?” she asked. “I was missing that forward momentum for my body.”

It’s a feeling many pickleball players understand immediately.

“Most days I go home kind of proud of myself,” she said. “Whether I won or lost, just that I remembered to do the third-shot drop, or kept the dinking pretty low over the net… and I did smash it a few times! I love that. That’s fun.”

Few sentences capture pickleball better than that.

The victories aren’t always measured by the scoreboard. Sometimes they’re measured by trying something new, moving your body, laughing with friends, or remembering that it’s never too late to learn.

Why Pickleball Players Will Love The Dink

As someone who spends every day telling pickleball stories, I appreciated that The Dink didn’t try to exaggerate what makes the sport special.

It simply trusted the game.

The comedy works because the characters feel real. The pickleball feels genuine. Underneath every laugh is something many of us have experienced ourselves: the unexpected way this sport brings people exactly what they didn’t know they needed.

I believe pickleball players are going to embrace this movie.

Not because it’s about pickleball.

Because it understands why people fall in love with pickleball in the first place.

The Dink premieres Friday, July 24, exclusively on Apple TV+, starring Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Andy Roddick, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Aaron Chen, and Ben Stiller.