Did the Actors in The Dink Have to Learn Pickleball in Real Life?

Quick Answer: Yes. Jake Johnson had never played pickleball before The Dink and trained from scratch, taking lessons in both tennis and pickleball. Mary Steenburgen learned the game for the movie too, after her son handed her a paddle just months before the role arrived. The production brought in professional players to keep the on-court action honest.

The Jake Johnson pickleball education started the way most of ours did: overconfident, then humbled. It’s the question every sports movie earns: did the actors actually learn to play, or is it all editing? With The Dink streaming on Apple TV from July 24, 2026, here’s what the actors really did to look like pickleball players, and who had the longest road to get there.

Did Jake Johnson Really Learn Pickleball?

Yes, from absolute zero, and he’s been refreshingly honest about it. Johnson has said he’d never played pickleball when he read the script and figured he’d just pick it up, the exact assumption his character makes in the movie. The sport had other plans. Because Dusty Boyd is a former tennis prodigy, Johnson’s training ran on two tracks: tennis lessons to look like a lifelong player, including work with famed tennis coach Brad Gilbert, who coached Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, and then pickleball training with professional players the production brought in.

One drill from his training says everything about how seriously they took it: the pros would place a hat on the court and have him hit it. That’s a real accuracy drill straight from actual coaching, not a Hollywood invention. Johnson has said the training is where his appreciation for the sport came from, and that the pros cared deeply about representing the game right.

Did the Other Stars Train Too? Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris

Steenburgen’s story is the best one on the set, and she told it herself on the Today show: about two months before The Dink came her way, her son gave her a paddle and suggested she try pickleball. Then the movie arrived, with her playing Candace, the partner who knows the game and teaches Dusty, and she learned to play for the role. Life handed her the paddle before Hollywood did. At 73, learning a new sport well enough to play the court-savvy one opposite a trained co-star may be the most impressive athletic feat in the film.

Ed Harris had the easiest training regimen imaginable: none. His character Chuck is the pickleball-hating father whose whole position is refusing to play, so Harris never needed to hit a ball. The glaring, he already had.

Did Andy Roddick and John McEnroe Need Training?

The two people on set who needed no introduction to racquet sports. Roddick, playing a fictionalized version of himself as Dusty’s childhood rival, won the US Open with one of the biggest serves in tennis history. McEnroe has spent his retirement competing in every format that will have him. For elite tennis players, the mechanics of pickleball come almost instantly; the adjustment is strategy and restraint, which is a running joke in the movie itself. Our full breakdown of what the tennis legends do in the film covers their roles.

Why the Training Actually Matters

Players can smell fake sports footage in one rally. The list of what training buys a movie:

• Believable ready positions and footwork between shots, the thing editing can’t fake
• Real dink rallies with patience instead of two-touch cutaways
• Feet that respect the non-volley zone, which is pure trained habit
• An actor whose improvement over the story arc looks earned, since Johnson’s real learning curve ran parallel to Dusty’s

That last one is the quiet advantage. Johnson didn’t have to act like a man being humbled by pickleball; he was one. Anyone who has walked onto a court as a confident athlete and gotten dissected by a patient 68-year-old knows exactly the face he’s making in the trailer, and I suspect no acting was required.

FAQ

Did Jake Johnson play pickleball before The Dink? No. He has said he’d never played when he signed on and trained from scratch with tennis coach Brad Gilbert and professional pickleball players.

Who trained the actors in The Dink? Johnson worked with tennis coach Brad Gilbert plus pickleball pros the production brought in. Director Josh Greenbaum wanted the sport shot like a real sports movie.

Did the actors do their own pickleball scenes? Sports movies routinely mix actor footage with professional doubles in wide shots. Johnson’s extensive training suggests much of the paddle work is really him.

Where was The Dink filmed? Reports point to the Los Angeles area, where the fictional Mountain Crest country club setting was created for filming.

Is Mary Steenburgen good at pickleball in real life? She learned the game for the movie. Her son gave her a paddle and suggested she play about two months before she was offered the role, a story she shared on the Today show.

How long did Jake Johnson train for The Dink? His preparation covered both tennis and pickleball training before and during production, including work with tennis coach Brad Gilbert.

If Johnson can go from never-played to leading a pickleball movie, your learning curve looks pretty friendly. Our beginner guides cover the rules and skill levels, and the directory can find you a court where nobody is filming your first kitchen fault.

Written by the Pickler Junction Team.