Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV’s ‘The Dink’ follows the story of Dusty, a washed-up tennis player who is reduced to working for his father at the tennis club. He spends his days telling stories of when he almost beat Andy Roddick to uninterested children who just want to get on with actually learning to play the game. Things shake up when his father takes on the task of stopping the increasing scourge of pickleball by beating them in a duel. While Dusty wishes to be his father’s champion, he finds himself in a complicated spot when he realizes that pickleball is actually fun. Directed by Josh Greenbaum, the sports comedy film sets up a funny conflict. But as the story unfolds, a deeply human tale of a man’s search for meaning emerges.
The Fictional Dink is Inspired by the Writer’s Real Love for Pickleball
‘The Dink’ is a fictional story written by Sean Clements. The idea for the film came from his own experience of discovering a love for pickleball. In his younger years, he’d played competitive tennis, but he stopped playing after high school. Years later, when he tried to pick up the sports again, he was hindered by minor injuries. So, his mother advised him to change things up and play pickleball for a while. At the time, he didn’t see pickleball as a serious game, particularly in comparison to tennis. One day, he ended up playing it with some of his friends and enjoyed it so much that he later started going to open mixers. He noted that many players at these places were older, retired people, including a group of women with whom Clements became friends.
The writer noted that it “felt like it was a really funny dynamic, this group of women my mom’s age who had adopted me as their new pickleball partner, and so that was the seed of it.” Building upon this strange and fun relationship, he created the characters of Dusty and Candace, with his own dynamic with the retirees informing their relationship. Still, he clarified that this is where the connection to reality ends. None of the characters or events is based on any particular person or incident in real life. However, he revealed that when he started writing Dusty’s character, he did it with his long-time friend, Jake Johnson, in mind.
The Actors Brought More Depth to the Fictional Characters
Once Jake Johnson came on board, he and Sean Clements worked together to fine-tune the movie’s comedic elements, significantly shaping the direction of Dusty’s story. In the same vein, when Ed Harris was cast as Dusty’s father, Chuck, he brought his own element to the character. While Chuck had been written as a stoic person in contrast to Dusty’s personality, Harris’ interpretation added more depth to the disappointed father. When Josh Greenbaum took on the project as director, he decided to add a strong sense of realism in the way the characters played the sport. Jake Johnson took lessons for tennis and then for pickleball, where he played against professionals to better understand the levels and the true stakes of the game.
Co-star Mary Steenburgen also received proper training, and both actors shot most of the pickleball scenes themselves. The doubles were used to film more challenging aspects of the game, but the actors did most of the heavy lifting and gave wonderful performances. While the sports form the conflict of the story, Greenbaum noted that its emotional aspect is what makes it more impactful. He described ‘The Dink’ as a movie about a person discovering that there is more to life than a big opportunity that has passed them by. It is never too late to reinvent yourself and find your purpose, and as Dusty goes through this arc in the movie, the filmmakers hope that the audience will relate to him and reflect on their own lives in the process.
Read More: The Dink Ending Explained: Does Dusty Beat Andy Roddick?
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