Emma Stone and the Tennis Doubles for ‘Battle of the Sexes’

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  1. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    This should be interesting! Will you watch this movie? Did you see the 'Battle of the Sexes' in 1973?

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/emma-stone-and-the-tennis-doubles-for-battle-of-the-sexes-1506021469



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    SPORTS JASON GAY
    Emma Stone and the Tennis Doubles for ‘Battle of the Sexes’
    The Oscar winner of ‘La La Land’ and Steve Carell co-star in ‘Battle of the Sexes,’ but its sparkling tennis scenes owe a debt to a pair of hard-working pros
    01:27 / 34:06
    WSJ reporter Jason Gay talks with actress Emma Stone about PowerPoint presentations, her growling stomach and playing Billie Jean King in the film "Battle of the Sexes."

    By Jason Gay
    Sept. 21, 2017 3:17 p.m. ET
    67 COMMENTS
    Billie Jean King was ecstatic that Hollywood was making a movie about her 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” showdown with Bobby Riggs; ecstatic that Emma Stone was going to play her, and Steve Carell was cast as Riggs (“Two of my favorite actors,” she said); ecstatic that the directors were going to be Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who made “Little Miss Sunshine.” “I’d seen that four times!” she told me. But there was one key point King wanted to lock down:

    The tennis had to be believable.
    Billie Jean King Cannot Be Stopped
    “If the tennis is rotten…sports people won’t care what else is going on,” King said.

    The history of tennis on film is mixed at best. There’s been tennis in movies including “Strangers on a Train,” Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and tennis—or something resembling tennis—in the 2004 romantic comedy, “Wimbledon.” There’s also “Players,” the 1979 romance with Ali McGraw and Dean Paul Martin, which King groans about, even if she admits its tennis bona fides were solid. It’s fair to say that tennis has never had its “Bull Durham,” its “Hoosiers,” its “Rudy,” not even its “Caddyshack”—which is to say a film that realistically captures what fans love about the sport.

    King had a request of the filmmakers: “You don’t have to make the tennis great. Just adequate.”

    Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs in ‘Battle of the Sexes’
    Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs in ‘Battle of the Sexes’ PHOTO: FOX SEARCHLIGHT/EVERETT COLLECTION
    I’m happy to report that the tennis in “Battle of the Sexes,” which arrives Friday, Sept. 22, is far better than adequate: it’s about as truthful and vivid a portrait as the game has seen on film. Though the movie is a broader portrait of King’s life at the time, there’s a ton of court action—especially in the climactic third act, when Carell and Stone stride into the Astrodome to re-create the iconic match. Not only is the tennis believable, it’s a meticulous representation of the type of tennis played in that era: serve and volley, chipping and charging to the net, touch volleys and soft hands.

    Hardcore tennis nuts will be pleased. The strokes, the outfits, the old school wooden rackets with gut string—it’s all there.

    “We felt a lot of pressure,” Valerie Faris admitted. “It’s the end of the movie, so it couldn’t be a letdown.”
    You will probably not be shocked to learn that a lot of the key tennis in the movie isn’t actually played by Stone and Carell. Stone and Carell did train and play—a ton, in fact; Carell worked with the late Riggs’s former trainer, Lornie Kuhle, and Stone got buff to the point where King herself was amazed. But for longer sequences, body doubles were used. Current pro Kaitlyn Christian served as King’s double; retired pro Vince Spadea played Riggs.

    Preparation was extensive. Dayton and Faris spent hours analyzing tape of the “Battle” match, which was broadcast on ABC and included the inimitable Howard Cosell in the booth. With the help of Kuhle, the co-directors cut up sequences and relayed them to Christian and Spadea, who would get together and practice. The idea wasn’t to totally choreograph points, but to get a feel for the early ’70s playing style, and, of course, the retro equipment, which is far less forgiving than today’s synthetic frames and stringing.

    “The biggest adjustment was the wooden rackets,” said Christian, 25, who was playing in an ITF tournament this week when I spoke to her. She was cast, she said, not only because her body type matched Stone’s, but also because her playing style is a throwback to King’s. “I come to net, I serve and volley,” the Southern California graduate said. “And they wanted someone who knew how to hit a slice like Billie Jean’s.” King gave Christian some pointers in person, like how she brought her foot up on her serve (“It’s unlike how anyone does it today,” Christian said) and the way she used her body and racket as she came to net.

    “That all-court game is kind of lost today,” Christian said.

    Southern California’s Kaitlyn Christian, left and Sabrina Santamaria celebrate their doubles win against a team from UCLA in 2013
    Southern California’s Kaitlyn Christian, left and Sabrina Santamaria celebrate their doubles win against a team from UCLA in 2013 PHOTO: STEPHEN HAAS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
    I caught up with Spadea at the U.S. Open a few weeks ago. The laid-back 43-year-old has a lengthy tennis résumé, including wins over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, whoever those jokers are. For “Battle,” Spadea served not only as Riggs’s double, but also as Stone’s coach, cooking up inventive directions like “Serve the pizza!” to get the actress to imitate King’s volley.

    “If she wasn’t finishing correctly, I’d tell her to ‘Serve the pizza,’ so she’d punch her volley,” Spadea said.

    To play the raconteur Riggs—a former world No. 1 who won both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon—Spadea grew out his sideburns, let his hair collect into a shaggy mop, and even shaved his legs. Wait: Bobby Riggs shaved his legs? “Maybe he thought he would move faster,” Spadea theorized. (Christian, meanwhile, cut her long hair to match King’s shorter cut, a decision she called difficult.)

    Every detail was considered, because it would all wind up on film. For the final match scenes, Dayton and Faris wanted to shoot the tennis “head to toe,” like the old MGM musicals (and “La La Land,” which Stone had just come from filming). Both players would be in the frame; there would be no hiding with close-ups and quick cuts. “We wanted that real interplay,” Dayton said.

    Emma Stone as Billie Jean King in ‘Battle of the Sexes.’ PHOTO: FOX SEARCHLIGHT/EVERETT COLLECTION
    The end product is a match that looks real, because it pretty much is—Christian and Spadea playing long points on camera at the Astrodome (really the old Los Angeles Sports Arena, which got torn down the week after the shoot ended) with wide shots that include the crowd and the madcap atmospherics of that moment. There’s Spadea playing in a Riggs-style Sugar-Daddy jacket; there’s Christian as King wearing him out with her attacking style; there’s a vintage Howard Cosell (it actually is the vintage Cosell). It feels as if a historic spectacle for tennis and the culture (90 million TV viewers—still a record) has been breathed back to life.

    “I loved the film,” said Kuhle, who was courtside for the original.

    “I really wanted to make Billie Jean proud,” Christian said. “She’s the reason I had a scholarship in college. We owe so much to her.”

    The tennis body double doesn’t need to worry. The world’s leading Billie Jean King expert—who was also there in on that brilliant night 44 years ago—approves.

    “She did a great job,” Billie Jean King said.

    Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com
     

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