In new movie Battle of the Sexes, Jessica McNamee plays Margaret Court — with all her baggage
BATTLE of the Sexes is the biggest movie of Aussie actor Jessica McNamee’s career. But playing tennis champ Margaret Court came with unexpected baggage.
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THIS should be the biggest role of expat Australian actor Jessica McNamee’s career to date: a crowd-pleasing Oscar contender that allowed her to share the screen with powerhouse stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell.
But by virtue of who she plays in Battle of the Sexes — former Australian tennis champion Margaret Court, now a church pastor who has been outspoken in her disapproval of same-sex marriage — its release is now accompanied by mixed feelings.
“I didn’t actually know how hard line (Court) was while we were shooting this film, because her latest opinions and statements came post us filming,” McNamee explains.
“It was funny watching it back, it does have a lot more weight now in light of her recent statements.”
While some have called for the name of Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park to be changed in the wake of Court’s comments, McNamee posted a picture of herself in costume, with Stone in costume as US champ Billie Jean King, on Instagram saying: “This ‘Margaret Court’ believes in marriage equality and supports any corporation that does the same.”
The response, she says, was overwhelmingly positive.
“I know I come from a country where opinion is very divided — I’m not naive to that. But I wasn’t going after Margaret, I wasn’t being malicious, I was just clearly stating that I have different views to her. I’ve never claimed she is anything other than a great sportswoman — she is, she’s a phenomenal sportswoman and I give her credit for that.”
Battle of the Sexes recreates the infamous 1973 tennis match between women’s No. 1 Billie Jean King and veteran men’s player Bobby Riggs, a showman who cast himself in the role of “male chauvinist pig” taking on the “hairy legged feminist”.
The movie also charts King’s role in setting up the breakaway Women’s Tennis Association, in protest at female players only being paid 1/12 of the prize money men were receiving at the time.
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McNamee hasn’t worked on such a female-dominated set since her days on Packed to the Rafters.
“I’ve certainly found that after that it’s been predominantly male crews and casts,” says the actor, who most recently popped up in Hollywood comedy CHiPs. “I loved being surrounded by really strong, opinionated women and telling such an amazing story about such an incredible group of women.”
Sadly, this true journey to triumph for female athletes — in an era when they were regularly called “little lady” and told they couldn’t “handle the pressure” — is dampened by the depressing reality of how much hasn’t changed in the years since.
“I don’t think we’ve come very far at all. It’s scary how little progress we’ve made,” says McNamee. “That’s what was really shocking to me — looking at a story that’s over 40 years old, where a bunch of women are fighting for equality, and really not that much has changed. Particularly living in America in the current political climate, with Trump at the helm ... we’re still living in those times.
“It’s still backwards and there are still huge moments of misogynistic behaviour of people in power and women are still spoken to like that! We’re all still fighting for equality across the board. We’re still earning 35c to the male dollar, which is just ludicrous in this day and age.
“There’s still such a long way to go.”
However McNamee, 31, is determined to look on the bright side. She believes Battle of the Sexes is arriving at an opportune moment for her generation.
“We’re at such a crossroads as young women, trying to find our way and find a voice in such a male-heavy world. Watching a film like this, seeing that women made amazing change back then when it was way more archaic than it is now, it shows that if you speak up for yourself and really fight for what you can believe in, then change can come.
“If it could come for the tennis world 40 years ago, then we have a lot more opportunity to succeed today, I think.”
For this Sydneysider, who has now been acting professionally for 10 years, Battle of the Sexes played out like a dream.
“I was pinching myself during the whole filming,” McNamee says with a laugh. “I was very lucky to be working with the likes of Steve and Emma.”
A scene in which Riggs tries to recruit Court to play him required Carell to barrel into McNamee’s space at a million miles an hour.
“It was pretty great, a cool scene to have,” she says. “Steve’s a really lovely man and so talented. And it’s just so funny to think about it happening in real life — it seems ridiculous, but this guy did this in real life.”
And given the intense rivalry over the years between Court and King, McNamee had plenty of opportunity to stare down Stone from the other end of the tennis court. Both actors trained to capture the playing style of their respective champs.
Did the two get competitive with each other, for real?
“Oh no! She’s such a doll. She’s so warm and welcoming, she doesn’t come across as the kind of girl who could glare someone down — unless she’s acting,” McNamee laughs of Oscar-winner Stone.
“We spent a lot of time training, so we wanted to make it look as convincing as possible. But there were moments when we were just terrible as well. You’re in character, trying really hard to appear a great sportswoman, then you would hit a shot that was so awful ... There was a lot of laughter.”
McNamee has since had the pleasure of spending time with the real King and her partner, Ilana Kloss. The first thing King wanted to know upon meeting the actor is whether she’s related to Davis Cup-winning Aussie player Paul McNamee.
“I’ve never met him but I’m sure we have to be related along the line somewhere,” McNamee says, “because it’s not a common name, not in Australia anyway.”
She is looking to do her surname proud next time she returns home, however.
“I’ve been continuing to play tennis since filming. My parents actually built a tennis court in more recent years, since I moved to America, but I’ve never been able to utilise it. So I’m really looking forward and going back at Christmas and surprising them all with my nifty skills.”
BATTLE OF THE SEXES OPENS TODAY
Originally published as In new movie Battle of the Sexes, Jessica McNamee plays Margaret Court — with all her baggage
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