Mary Steenburgen On Set at The Dink Movie: Improv with Jake Johnson, Her Point on Anna Leigh Waters, and the Psychic Who Predicted Ted Danson

Have you ever made it to the front of the paddle line at pickleball open play, only to have your partner dis you because she didn't want to play with "a beginner"?

Yeah, that happened to today's guest, Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen, one of the celebrities who play pickleball when no one's filming.

After sharing drinks with Mary and her husband, Ted Danson, we knew we had to have her on the pod to talk all things pickleball community, how to keep growing at any age, and the weird "gift" she was given after what was supposed to be a routine surgery (that's the Mary Steenburgen music story).

She's spilling the tea on who got her into the game, how she won her first sports ribbon at 40 by a complete fluke, and how she and Jake Johnson became friends through improv on the set of The Dink movie. We also get into what beginner pickleball is like when strangers expect a movie star to be good, and her take on pickleball for seniors, court shoes included.

We talk about:

How Mary scored most of her team's 6 points alongside the partner who called her "a beginner," back before The Dink Movie came out

The crash course in pickleball open play etiquette she needed first, starting with how the paddle line works

Who got Mary to pick up a paddle, and the support that kept her enthusiasm going

The word Mary makes her 5 grandchildren add to the sentence "I can't do this"

The night of pickleball with the crew of The Dink that Mary will never forget

Why pickleball people are the best, and how the sport spans generations

The "gift" Mary got after a bit of anesthesia, which she didn't see as a gift and which turned into a whole other career