Cleo King on The Dink Movie: How She Booked Gail on a Pickleball Court, Learned the Game from Brad Gilbert, and Never Put the Paddle Down
About this episode
Cleo King discusses her role as Gail in The Dink and her journey into the pickleball community.
We all love a Gail. We've met her at open play, we've been her on a bad-line-call day, and we've absolutely texted the group about her afterward. We love her enough that we tracked down the woman behind the Gail character in the movie, The Dink, and brought her to your favorite pickleball happy hour podcast. In this episode, we sit down with Cleo King, the actress who plays Gail in The Dink, to talk about how a same-day audition turned into the role everybody quotes, what a month of learning pickleball from Brad Gilbert looked like before cameras rolled, and what the pickleball community has been telling her since the film came out. We also get into pickleball etiquette, because Cleo has opinions about people who aim at people. Until Jake Johnson called, she'd picked up a paddle twice in her life. Now she plays three times a week, packs three paddles when she travels, and belongs on any honest list of celebrities that play pickleball. In this episode, we talk about: The phone call from Jake Johnson that turned an ordinary drive to Palm Springs into an audition on an actual court Why the casting team wouldn't let Cleo talk to the other women reading for Gail, and what she did…
More episodes of Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball Podcast
- How Major League Pickleball Really Works: What Fans Don’t See Behind the Trades, Contracts, and Team Decisions with Alex Geesbreght
- He Bought A Pickleball Team: Inside Team Ownership And Family Connection With Los Angeles Mad Drops Owner Alex Geesbreght
- Grief Is Part of the Game: Why Losing a Pickleball Partner Hurts and How Healthy Competition Can Help You Keep Growing with Dr. Amanda Sovik Johnston
- The Dink Movie Premiere: Mary Steenburgen Got Snubbed at Open Play, Ted Danson Fell Head Over Heels for Pickleball, and Ben Johns' Celebrity Foursome
- Why Pickleball Might Be Rearranging Your Whole Life Before You Notice
- What Two Empty Nesters with Gold Medals and Matching Outfits Can Teach Us About Starting Over with Cecy Feld and Holly Kerr
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Dinks On Tap: The Happy Hour Pickleball Podcast podcast page.