Diksha Sundriyal
In Apple TV+’s ‘The Dink,’ a former tennis prodigy named Dusty finds himself unexpectedly warming up to pickleball, a sport that he and his father deem unworthy of even being played in their club. When his father reveals the plan to stop the pickleballers from getting more courts, Dusty wishes to represent him in the duel. However, his enthusiasm to prove himself worthy leads to an injury, for which pickleball is suggested as the best way of recovery. With so much focus on tennis and pickleball, the film features several important scenes of characters playing the sports. As the lead actor, Jake Johnson had to pick up the tennis racket as well as the paddle and deliver some of the most intense scenes in the movie. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Jake Johnson Learned Tennis and Pickleball for The Dink
When director Josh Greenbaum was given the reins of ‘The Dink,’ he came on board with the intention of presenting the sports scenes as realistically as possible. He knew it was a bit complicated to capture every aspect of the games with precision, which is why acting doubles were used to fill in the gaps. However, he still wanted his actors to be the ones doing the majority of the scenes, for which they, especially the lead actor, Jake Johnson, received intense training. In a conversation with Pickleball.com, the actor revealed that when writer Sean Clements approached him with the script, he had no experience playing the game.
Because the film was still on the page, he didn’t think too much about the sport and thought it would be easy to pick up once filming began. Since his character is a former tennis player, he needed to learn the basics of the game, and that’s where his training began with tennis coach Brad Gilbert. After this, he was moved to pickleball training, where he began to realize there was so much more to the game than he’d imagined. Gilbert brought in local pros, and playing with them became a fun activity for Johnson. He revealed that they would set up targets, like a hat, and the player would have to hit it.
Playing with professionals made Johnson appreciate the game much more, especially as he discovered that there were several levels to it and it wasn’t as simple as it seemed initially. He also noted that anyone could be a good pickleball player when playing against a bad player. However, it was in front of a really good player that you would discover where you truly stand. Johnson continued playing the game off-camera as well. He revealed that he went to a couple of places to play pickleball with his longtime friend, Justin Long, who is a fan of the game. The ‘New Girl’ actor noted that a lot of people in these places were older people who’d found a great love for the sports.
Trash-talking was also another important point, and he likened it to ‘Cobra Kai’ in terms of defeating the player in front of you. As fun as it was, it also became a reference point for the actor when the filming started. Clements was influenced by his own transition from tennis to pickleball. He drew on his experience playing the sport, much of which Johnson also became familiar with during his preparation for the role. The training also gave the actor a sense of the games that would be depicted in the movie. He realized it was much more serious than him simply having fun with the game. To ensure that the game was well-represented, professional players were brought on as consultants on the film, who helped iron out the creases and made everything look so much better.
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