Enter The Dink, a new comedy directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Will & Harper), co-produced by Ben Stiller, and starring Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, and Jake Johnson. The film, which debuts on Apple TV on July 24, serves as a sweet ode to this burgeoning pastime, while still poking fun at its foibles. For example, the cast, which also includes Stiller, the late Lynne Marie Stewart, Aaron Chen, Chloe Fineman, and Cleo King, offers intentionally corny, and thus amusing, jokes about “the kitchen,” the pickleball zone in front of the net that participants absolutely cannot enter to hit volleys.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity)
About two months before I knew anything about The Dink, my son Charlie McDowell gave me a paddle and said, "Mom, I've had women even older than you whip my ass.” I said, “That's such a sweet thing to say.” He gave me some lessons. He's been my encouragement. And I started taking lessons on Martha's Vineyard by a woman named Connie McHugh, who's an incredible coach and teacher, and she helped me to just fall in love with it. I saw in it something that I could do at this age that I could get good at–maybe not great at or world-class, but good at–and go have fun with friends, and feel like I had a sport, which I hadn't had since my 40s, when I did start swimming competitively. I've missed having that feeling. So I started feeling that feeling again, of learning something with my body. I like puzzles a lot. Pickleball has a lot of puzzle aspects to it. Because it's not just about power. It's about finesse. It's about angles. It's about remembering all the little ways that you can trip yourself up. So I love what it does to how I think in my brain. And then I've made friends that I never would have known, people I never would have met, through this sport.
Why do you think pickleball has gotten so popular in the last five, six years or so?
The movie plays on a real conflict that's happened across the country: the fight over space. Pickleball’s expansion has required the need, for example, for the sport to take over tennis courts in some places, ruffling feathers. Full disclosure: I’ve felt this firsthand. I play tennis recreationally and basketball recreationally with my son, and pickleball's encroached on our space a little bit. Do you have sympathy for us folks on the other side of this conflict?
One of the film’s comedic bits is your character and Jake Johnson’s character playing against a team in which both players grunt loudly on the court. Are there really pickleball grunters?
Did you need a pickleball double for the film?
They used her in two-shots. It's pretty much mostly me. I watch it and wish could do it all over again because I play better now than I did then. But that's OK.
Mary Steenburgen in The Dink —Courtesy of Apple TVI do not. He will not play with me. He has a bad shoulder. He doesn't want to talk about it, and he won't play with me. But I have plenty of people to play with.
Well, it's not exclusive. And there's a lot of exclusivity now, and not enough inclusivity. Anything that brings people together and makes them laugh is a good thing. And by the way, no one can learn the scoring thing and all the rules in an hour. It is so cockamamie and crazy. I'm still learning.
I adored her. There was absolutely no sign of her being ill. I know she didn't know, and then several weeks after the film, she became very ill. And the sweet thing I would tell you is that Jake and Josh took a rough cut of the film to hospice and showed it to her, as the last film she saw before she passed. She loved it and she saw how good she was in it. I think it was very meaningful for her that she got to do it and she got to see it.
Exactly what you think. I don't recommend it. It's not the worst thing I've ever eaten. Maple syrup makes everything better. But it's not what your taste buds want out of spaghetti.
One thing is there was a phone call from Will Ferrell to me. I remember I was in my house on Martha's Vineyard, and he called me himself out of the blue. We had done Elf the year before. I think it was the year before. And he said, “I know you played my stepmom in Elf. Would you be offended if I asked you to play my actual mom?” And I said, "Well, let me do the math here.” And I asked him when he was born. Then I go, "Well, Will, I would have had to have had you when I was 11. [Editor’s note: Steenburgen is 73. Ferrell is 59.] But the answer is, ‘I would be offended if you ask anybody else because I definitely want to do it.’” Because he and I had such a good time together on Elf.
At the 2025 Emmys, you and Ted received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. You’ve both been active in a variety of causes, including anti-apartheid in South Africa, research for pediatric AIDS, and the importance of arts in public schools. On the philanthropic/humanitarian front, is there anything new you're working on that’s exciting or interesting or important to you?
You’ve had such a long and varied career: you’ve won an Oscar and played all different types of roles in dramas and comedies. Is there any role you haven't played that you still want to do? Any bucket-list items, career-wise?
You mentioned music. You’ve talked about how, after minor arm surgery in 2007, you started hearing music in your mind all the time. What exactly happened there, where a medical procedure made you musical?
People say it was a gift. It might have been a gift, but it was a gift I had to work really hard to harness and make sense out of. My grandmother was extremely musical, so I don't know if I just got to some part of my brain that was there that I hadn't. I don't know enough about the brain. But I became obsessed with music, and from the obsession, I started studying music. My first instrument was an accordion, which I just started playing. It didn't take me long to figure it out. And then I consumed books about songwriting and started paying attention to song structure. All this work helped to calm it down to the point where I could behave like a normal person. But I am still absolutely obsessed with music, and particularly with writing music. I write mostly with people from or connected to Nashville, because I'm signed with Universal Music Publishing Group in Nashville, and I really love the Nashville way of writing and the seriousness about musicianship and writing. I just love my friends there. So we're doing some crazy, wonderful things. We just got through writing two end-credit songs for movies. I enjoy it very much.
I hope they laugh in a summer where laughter is probably a really good thing. I hope some of them safely go out and have fun playing pickleball and don't hurt themselves. I hope that it reminds people in the business that these smaller films that are beautifully written, with a great script, have value in the marketplace. And in a dream world, maybe we'll get to do another one. That would make me very happy
My dink is pretty good. I dinked against Anna Leigh Waters this morning, and although there were three of us playing one person, we did win best two out of three from my little dink.
I have no idea.
Hence then, the article about mary steenburgen does not feel bad if you lost your tennis court to pickleball was published today ( ) and is available on Time ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Mary Steenburgen Does Not Feel Bad if You Lost Your Tennis Court to Pickleball )
Also on site :
- 'It was unlike anything I'd witnessed before': Orcas seen headbutting a sunfish so hard that it exploded
- Primoris Services Corporation Sued for Securities Law Violations - Contact the DJS Law Group to Discuss Your Rights - PRIM
- Nordic Capital announces agreement to sell ArisGlobal to Dassault Systèmes, following its transformation into a scaled and AI-enabled life sciences platform