Mary Steenburgen says she was ready to sign the contract for a different project when she got a call the same day about “The Dink.”
The busy Oscar-winning actress, 73, was told by her agent that “The Dink” would be shot in Los Angeles, where she lives. It would be a comedy with Josh Greenbaum (“Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” the upcoming “Spaceballs: The New One”) as the director, Ben Stiller as a producer and Jake Johnson of “New Girl” fame as her fellow star.
“And then she said, ‘It’s about pickleball.’ And I went, ‘I will do it,’” recall Steenburgen. “She goes, ‘Well, you’ve got to read the script.’ And I went: ‘Nope, I’m going to do it. Turn down the other one and let’s do that!’”
“The Dink,” which arrives Friday, July 24, on Apple TV, is a sports movie with offbeat humor, genuine heart and the relaxed vibe of beloved 1970s comedies like “Caddyshack” and “Stripes.”
Johnson plays Dusty, a tennis instructor who never earned the respect of his father, racquet club owner Chuck (Ed Harris), after failing to become a top tennis pro.
When a conflict emerges between tennis fans and pickleball aficionados at the private club, Dusty tries out pickleball to learn more about the sport and meets a a new friend and pickleball partner, Candace, who is portrayed by Steenburgen. She opens his eyes to the fun of the disputed sport and begins to fill a void in his life that eventually helps him become his own man before a high-stakes pickleball showdown at the club.
Steenburgen was in Grand Rapids in July to promote “The Dink” at the 2026 Beer City Open, a tournament founded in 2018 that has grown substantially. This year’s edition drew more than 1,000 amateur players and included the Major League Pickleball midseason tournament.
“You can see that the sport is exploding. It’s just this incredibly fast-growing thing,” she says of the tourney.
According to Steenburgen, her son, Charlie McDowell (whose father is “A Clockwork Orange” actor Malcolm McDowell), encouraged her to try pickleball. The younger McDowell, whom she calls “a brilliant player,” gave her her first racquet.
“He said, ‘I think you can do this. I think you can learn this sport.’ And he said, ‘I do see people older than you that I’ve played that have beaten me.’ So I said, ‘OK.’”
Steenburgen, 73, says she enjoys pickleball as a sport and as a social experience.
“I have to say, there is something about this quirky sport that I’ve experienced myself in my life, about making friendships … and having a sense of belonging,” says Steenburgen. “It’s a cool thing for someone my age to feel like, ‘Yes, my body can learn a sport. I can be a sporty person.’ … There are a millions things about pickleball to learn, and I’m doing that.”
Also in Grand Rapids for the Beer City Open was “The Dink” producer Mike Witherill, who was a star athlete while growing up in nearby Okemos, Michigan.
An All-State basketball student-athlete in 1980 and recipient of a football scholarship to Arizona State University, Witherill was inducted in 2015 into the inaugural class of Okemos High School’s athletic hall of fame.
Witherill says he had just finished working with Ben Stiller on the 2024 comedy “Nutcrackers” when Stiller asked whether he and producer Rob Paris, co-founders of Rivulet Entertainment, would be interested in doing another film together. Stiller told them it was called “The Dink” and about pickleball, says Witherill. “And we’re like, ‘We’re in.’”
A “dink,” by the way, is slang for a gentle, carefully aimed shot meant to land in what is pickleball’s non-volley zone, aka “the kitchen,” of the person or people you’re playing.
Witherill describes the cast of “The Dink” as a great team. Johnson is one of his favorite actors to work with. Of Steenburgen, he says: “I remember Mary’s name came up for the role of Candace, and I’m kind of like, ‘Well, good luck, guys, we’re not getting Mary for this. … But let’s give it a run.’”
He was thrilled when Steenburgen accepted the part. “I love just about every single thing she has ever done,” he says.
Also in the cast are Stiller, Patton Oswalt and real-life tennis champs Andy Roddick, who plays himself (but with an egotistical twist), and John McEnroe, who delivers big laughs as an unofficial sideline commentator.
Witherill calls the project “the most fun I’ve ever had on a movie by a multiple of 10” and notes that “The Dink” is not just for the pickleball community, but for anyone who wants to “go to the movie theater, turn your brain off and have fun for an hour and a half. … This movie just seemed to work in all facets.”
One facet, in particular, offers a refreshing change from the usual comedy stereotypes. Instead of calling for Johnson and Steenburgen have either a doomed or humorous May-December love affair, “The Dink” allows them to form a supportive, realistic friendship in spite of an age difference.
“What I love about is it that they were both two lonely people who found something about the other person that made them feel good and made them feel cared for and interested in, but they didn’t have to translate that into romance,” says Steenburgen. “It was OK that they were there for each other. … They show up for each other and that was enough for them.”
Steenburgen says she did most of her pickleball scenes herself, but had a body double, Beth Bellamy, the top-ranked 50+ women’s pickleball player in the world, fill in for a few shots. “She’s an extraordinary inspiration and she’s a great player,” says the actress who has tackled everything from drama in “Philadelphia” and “Nixon” to broad comedy in “Step Brothers,” where she played Will Ferrell’s mom.
Although Steenburgen talks about her son and daughter-in-law, “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, playing pickleball, she admits that her husband, Ted Danson, is not into the sport.
“He won’t play with me. He claims he has a bad shoulder, and the last thing I want to do is give him something to whine about,” she says, joking with superb comic timing before explaining that Danson’s excuse is actually legit.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
‘The Dink’
Rated PG-13; language, sexual material
1 hour, 42 minutes
On Apple TV
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pickleball comedy unites Michigan-born producer with Mary Steenburgen
Reporting by Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
