SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Is pickleball a sport - you know, like soccer, tennis or baseball - with history, tradition and gravitas? Or is it mostly - and maybe merely - an amusement, a distraction? Well, the country club where Dusty Boyd is the tennis pro is under pressure to expand the number of pickleball courts, and as his father, the club's general manager, puts it in a PowerPoint presentation to the board.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DINK")
ED HARRIS: (As Chuck Boyd) An epidemic is sweeping across our once-great nation, and its name is pickleball.
MARY STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) Ugh.
HARRIS: (As Chuck Boyd) The novel coronavirus is sports.
SIMON: "The Dink" is a new film starring Jake Johnson, who is also a producer, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris and Aaron Chen. Ben Stiller and Andy Roddick, John McEnroe also show up to play. And Jake Johnson, the actor known for the sitcom "New Girl, " and Mary Steenburgen, the Academy Award-winning best supporting actress for her role in "Melvin And Howard" and has starred in many films, join us now. Thank you both very much for being with us.
JAKE JOHNSON: Thank you.
STEENBURGEN: Our pleasure. Thank you.
SIMON: Let me ask you both, were you aware of this animosity towards pickleball before you signed on to this project?
STEENBURGEN: Not really. I had barely heard of pickleball, and about two months before the movie started shooting, my son gave me a paddle and told me he thought I would be good at this game and that I would love it. And he was right. So I'd only just started playing when the movie began.
SIMON: Mr. Johnson?
JOHNSON: I was new to it all. I thought it's very funny that there's a battle between the tennis players and the pickleballers. I am not connected to either world. So it was fun to get into a culture and see the differences of the two cultures. So all of that felt like a richness and enough area to explore it in terms of this movie.
SIMON: You play Dusty, who's was a great athlete from an early age, but there is, if I might put it this way, a big but in his story, isn't there?
JOHNSON: He was being driven very hard by his father, played by the iconic Ed Harris. His father had a real goal for how he wanted his son to win at tennis, and that was going to be, you know, the hammer and power hitting, where he wanted his son to have the fastest serve of anybody in the game.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) No, no, no, no, no, no.
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) Vero Beach classic.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Oh, my God.
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) The year was 2000, me versus Andy Roddick.
(As Dustin Boyd) And I was crushing it.
HARRIS: (As Chuck Boyd) Way to go (inaudible). That's my son.
AARON CHEN: (As PJ) That's where evil Mr. Andy decided to play dirty.
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) Yeah. He tried to ice me by taking a bathroom break.
And then at a young age, after sweeping through the amateurs, young Dusty faces a young Andy Roddick and meets his maker.
SIMON: Mary Steenburgen, tell us a little bit about Candace, 'cause pickleball and the friends in that circle have helped her through a rough patch, haven't they?
STEENBURGEN: Candace, she went through a hard time with a divorce and loss of a lot of friends, and I think she is somewhat lonely, but she starts playing the game with her friends, and she loves it, but they partner up with each other, and she is always having to partner with random people, and that's how she meets Dusty.
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STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) I'm assuming this is your first time playing.
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) I think it's going to be just fine. I'm a former tennis pro, so I'm not really sweating pickleball.
STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) It's not tennis.
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) I know. It's pickleball. It's even worse.
STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) OK, OK. We should go over this. Look, I hate to lose.
JOHNSON: (As Dustin Boyd) Oh, then we have one thing in common. 'Cause so do I.
STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) OK.
SIMON: Jake Johnson, as you mentioned, Ed Harris plays your father. Now, this film is mostly hilarious, but some of those scenes between father and son can be very hard to watch.
JOHNSON: I think this movie is a comedy, but I - what I love about it, the tone feels pretty unique to me in that there's some heart to it. I think the Candace and Dusty story has a lot of heart to it. I think the father and son story matters. It matters to the characters. It matters to the tone of the movie. We are - moments we are sacrificing jokes to build story, which I don't think people expect when they hear a pickleball movie.
SIMON: You just used a phrase I don't believe I've heard before, pickleball movie.
STEENBURGEN: Well, we are the "Caddyshack" of pickleball.
SIMON: (Laughter) Did you have to play a lot of pickleball to make this film work?
JOHNSON: We played a ton of pickleball. We played a ton of tennis. We had Brad Gilbert, the tennis coach, you know, who coached Andy in real life, and we had a lot of pickleball pros coming in and hit with us. So the ability to play and to play at a relatively high level was important to a lot of the people behind the scenes.
SIMON: Mary Steenburgen, do you actually have any scenes with John McEnroe and Andy Roddick?
STEENBURGEN: I just sit with John and keep asking him who he's talking to...
(LAUGHTER)
STEENBURGEN: ...And things like that.
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JOHN MCENROE: (As John McEnroe) There's that trademark Roddick speed. Dusty doesn't have any room to breathe. This could get out of hand quickly.
STEENBURGEN: (As Candace) Who are you talking to?
MCENROE: (As John McEnroe) The fans.
STEENBURGEN: I didn't really have any scenes with Andy, but he very kindly hit with me, which was great.
SIMON: Pickleball or tennis?
STEENBURGEN: We played pickleball, but, yeah, he gave me some tips I still think about.
SIMON: I don't want to give people the scary impression that there's a message to this movie. But there is a kind of lesson, isn't there?
JOHNSON: I'm with you when you say you don't want to scare people with a message, 'cause part of the reason I wanted to make this movie is I feel like entertainment in the last few years has changed, and it's become, like, a teaching tool. And I don't think that's what movies are. I think they're great when they're really nice distractions and entertainment. And so I guess the lesson of this would be more of an old-school movie lesson. And that is believe in yourself and figure out who you are and find what makes you happy, even if that's not what makes somebody else happy. But it's more of those big general lessons as opposed to more...
SIMON: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...A specific how-to-live-your-life-type lesson.
SIMON: Either you playing pickleball now?
STEENBURGEN: I am. I play a lot.
SIMON: Really?
STEENBURGEN: Yeah, really. I love it. It makes me so happy.
SIMON: So, forgive me, it's none of my business, and, of course, I'm not likely to be invited, but is there, like, a whole celebrity get-together at your pickleball court?
STEENBURGEN: There's no celebrities. Well, that's not true. I've played with my daughter-in-law, Lily Collins. My son that's married to her, Charlie McDowell, is a brilliant pickleball player. He's got two silver medals from European tournaments, and he's really good.
SIMON: Jake Johnson, as we note, you're a producer of this film. What's next for you? A tiddlywinks saga?
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: I would definitely do another "Dink" with this cast and crew. I loved that. I'm jumping back into TV, which feels like a real natural home for me. I grew up loving network television. "Cheers" is, you know, my favorite show of all time. "Roseanne," those kind of shows really meant a lot to me in my youth. I'm doing - I'm playing a detective on a show starting in fall called "Sunset P.I.," and I loved "Columbo." And so the chance to do a detective but be in a 30-minute comedic format with Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici writing it, who are the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" guys, feels like such a dream. So I feel very excited about that.
SIMON: So the quick answer is no, no tiddlywinks show.
JOHNSON: I mean, hey, man, you never know.
SIMON: Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen star in "The Dink." Thank you both so much for being with us.
JOHNSON: Thank you so much.
STEENBURGEN: Thank you, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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