Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen knew pickleball was her sport as soon as she realized how much she laughed on the court.
“If I’m going to play a sport, it’s going to have to involve laughter,” Steenburgen told Decider, in a recent interview for her new sports comedy movie, The Dink, now streaming on Apple TV.
Steenburgen’s passion for pickleball is on full display in The Dink, directed by Josh Greenbaum, who brings the same quick, absurd humor he brought to Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Steenburgen is no stranger to getting silly—she won the Oscar for the 1980 comedy Melvin and Howard, and is known by millennials for her iconic roles in Elf, Step Brothers, The Proposal and more.
The Dink stars Jake Johnson (who also produced the film) as Dusty, a washed-up former tennis pro who, like most tennis plays, looks down on pickleball as an easy sport for old people. But when Dusty winds up playing doubles with Steenburgen’s character, Candace, he comes to love that plastic, pickle-green ball as much as the real Steenburgen does.
“It’s something that is for all ages. It’s something that, at my age, I can actually get better at, and grow in,” Steenburgen told Decider.
The 73-year-old actor spoke to Decider about working with pickleball pros, slapping Jake Johnson, and Lynne Marie Stewart—best known as Miss Yvonne on The Pee-Wee Herman Show, who died at the age of 78 last year, and who plays Candace’s pickleball teammate, Judy, in The Dink.
I read that you got really into pickleball before this even movie came to you. Tell me about how that happened, and what this sport means to you.
My son, Charlie McDowell, gave me my first paddle and told me he thought I was going to love this sport. And he was right. He prides himself on always being right. But he was right. I do love it. I think it’s really fun. It’s something that is for all ages. It’s something that, at my age, I can actually get better at, and grow in. I love it because we play with a lot of heart, but we also just laugh the whole time we’re out there. That’s for me. If I’m going to play a sport, it’s going to have to involve laughter.
How much of you playing pickleball in the movie is really you?
It’s almost all me, with one or two shots by someone I love, named Beth Bellamy, [who] as far as I know still is, but definitely has been one of the No. 1 players in the world over 50. She’s amazing. One day I went to her house with my son—and she has this son, Roscoe Bellamy, who’s very highly ranked—and I played with Rosco, and she played with my son, Charlie. The mother and son, over there, were hitting it so hard at each other! It was making me laugh how hard they were hitting it at each other. They’re amazing players.
I heard from Jake [Johnson] in the other room that there was an alternate ending where Candace and Dusty try to actually make their romance work.
Really? He knows more about that than me, because he’s a producer on the movie. The script that we did, that’s the one I saw, so I didn’t see the previous script.
I felt like the chemistry between you guys was real, so I admit I was rooting for a real a romance. How would you have felt about that, if that ending had happened?
I mean, I get that, but it also brings with it all this baggage about what will happen. When will that age difference make a horrible difference? All that chatter starts going. I feel like the ending we found is what they did actually both need from each other, more than even romance. I think they both needed a partner and best friend.
There’s a funny scene where you slap Jake’s character, Dusty, for saying country music sucks. Tell me about filming that. Did you go a little harder on any of the takes?
I went really wimpy on take one. [Director] Josh Greenbaum said, “You hate hitting him, right?” And I said, “Look, I just am not used to hitting people.” He goes, “Well, I won’t make you do it again if you wallop him on take two.” So take two is the one that really hit him. [Jake Johnson] was like, “Okay, that stung. I’m done.”
Can you tell me a little bit about working with Lynne Marie Stewart, who plays Judy, one of your pickleball friends, and who sadly passed away last February 2025? This is her final role.
Lynne Marie had us laughing every single day. She was a delightful, dreamy human being. I went to her memorial service and learned so much about her that I didn’t know. She was an extraordinary, kind, beautiful soul—and so funny and sweet in the film. None of us, including Lynne Marie, knew she was sick. A few weeks after we wrapped, I heard she was sick. Seriously sick. And the sweet thing—I don’t know if Jake told you—but [the filmmakers] took the rough cut of the film to hospice to show her how great she was in the movie. So, that was the last movie she ever saw, and she really loved it.
