{"id":91915,"date":"2025-08-23T19:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91915\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T19:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T19:42:12","slug":"grading-actors-sports-skills-in-movies-from-adam-sandler-to-zendaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91915\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading Actors\u2019 Sports Skills in Movies From Adam Sandler to Zendaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSports stories are a staple of the movie and TV business for a reason: They usually have clear stakes, inherent drama and easily identifiable heroes and villains, giving audiences characters to root for (and against). But with a handful of exceptions, actors in sports movies<\/a> and series don\u2019t always have athletic backgrounds, at least not at the level of the characters they\u2019re portraying. <\/p>\n

\n\tRigorous training ahead of the cameras rolling can help, as can editing and other tricks of the trade, but not everyone can pull off the level of athleticism needed for audiences to fully suspend their disbelief. Here are some of the best, and a few of the worst, athletic performances in movies and TV.<\/p>\n

\tKevin Costner<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Kevin
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Joel Warren\/Orion Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tMaybe the most credible onscreen ballplayer of the past 40 years, both as a catcher who was just below the cusp of major-league talent in Bull Durham and an aging pitcher in the midst of a perfect game in For the Love of the Game. (Costner\u2019s golf game in Tin Cup is also pretty solid.)<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star<\/p>\n

\tZendaya, Josh O\u2019Connor and Mike Faist<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Josh
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe stars of Luca Guadagnino\u2019s movie Challengers, about a love triangle set in the professional tennis world, trained on the court for a good while before filming \u2014 but behind-the-scenes clips and other breakdowns of the movie make it clear they weren\u2019t actually hitting a ball in many of the tennis scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STARS OR AMATEURS? Amateurs <\/p>\n

\tLori Petty<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Lori
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Columbia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tGeena Davis is the star of A League of Their Own, but Petty\u2019s performance as the overlooked younger sister stands out, particularly in the baseball scenes. Her swing, throwing motion and baserunning form are all a cut above those of her co-stars.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star <\/p>\n

\tMichael B. Jordan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Michael
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe composition and editing of the Creed films\u2019 fight scenes do a great job of putting viewers within the action, but all of that wouldn\u2019t work nearly as well if Jordan (who also played a talented high school quarterback on NBC\u2019s Friday Night Lights) didn\u2019t showcase fast hands and good form in the ring.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star<\/p>\n

\tJamie Foxx<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Jamie
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOliver Stone\u2019s gonzo football movie Any Given Sunday is maybe not the most realistic depiction of the sport ever put on film. But as benchwarmer turned starter Willie Beamen, Foxx \u2014 a high school quarterback in his home state of Texas \u2014 does his best to ground the frenetic action with a smooth throwing motion and some real athleticism.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star<\/p>\n

\tHilary Swank<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Hilary
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Warner Brothers\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSwank won an Oscar for playing an up-and-coming boxer who meets a tragic end in the ring in Clint Eastwood\u2019s Million Dollar Baby. She reportedly trained extensively to play a fighter, and it shows in her footwork and fighting style.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star<\/p>\n

\tAdam Sandler<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Adam
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s no arguing with the (onscreen) results of Happy Gilmore\u2019s unorthodox approach to hitting a golf ball, taken from the character\u2019s days as a hockey player. But there\u2019s a reason no one on the professional tours swings like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? Amateur <\/p>\n

\tCristo Fern\u00e1ndez<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Cristo
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of the actors playing footballers in Ted Lasso had been on a pitch before, and while no one would ever mistake the in-game action on the show for a real Premier League match, the cast held its own. Among the standouts was Fern\u00e1ndez, who signed with a professional club in Mexico as a teenager but turned to acting after a knee injury. His skills remained with him, and they showed in his portrayal of Dani \u201cF\u00fatbol Is Life\u201d Rojas.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star<\/p>\n

\tWesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Woody
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp.\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough both are less than 6 feet tall, Snipes and Harrelson showed some real basketball skill as playground hoops hustlers in Ron Shelton\u2019s 1992 cult favorite White Men Can\u2019t Jump. Maybe not enough to actually get the better of former UCLA great and NBA All-Star Marques Johnson (who played the hotheaded Raymond in a memorable scene), but more than enough to sell the movie\u2019s conceit.<\/p>\n

\n\tALL-STARS OR AMATEURS? All-stars <\/p>\n

\tRodney Dangerfield<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Caddyshack,
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Orion Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe boorish (but hilarious) Al Czervik is supposed to be terrible at golf, so by that standard, Dangerfield nails his Caddyshack performance. Even to an untrained eye, Al\u2019s swing is atrocious.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll-star or amateur? Amateur, on purpose<\/p>\n

\tWalter Matthau and Tim Robbins<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Walter
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection (2)\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Bad News Bears and Bull Durham are among the best baseball movies, but not necessarily because of how well they depicted on-field play. These two actors played minor league pitchers (or ex-pitcher, in the case of Matthau\u2019s Morris Buttermaker) who somehow got near the cusp of the big leagues despite obviously terrible mechanics. Robbins\u2019 Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham had a \u201cmillion-dollar arm but a five-cent head,\u201d and his delivery wasn\u2019t much better than the latter. The less said about Buttermaker\u2019s briefly seen pitching in The Bad News Bears, the better.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll-stars or amateurs? Rank amateurs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports stories are a staple of the movie and TV business for a reason: They usually have clear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,337,54033],"class_list":["post-91915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-sports-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}