Sports 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 and series don’t always have athletic backgrounds, at least not at the level of the characters they’re portraying.
Rigorous 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.
Kevin Costner
Image Credit: Joel Warren/Orion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Maybe 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’s golf game in Tin Cup is also pretty solid.)
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist
Image Credit: MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection The stars of Luca Guadagnino’s movie Challengers, about a love triangle set in the professional tennis world, trained on the court for a good while before filming — but behind-the-scenes clips and other breakdowns of the movie make it clear they weren’t actually hitting a ball in many of the tennis scenes.
ALL-STARS OR AMATEURS? Amateurs
Lori Petty
Image Credit: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Geena Davis is the star of A League of Their Own, but Petty’s 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.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Michael B. Jordan
Image Credit: MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection The composition and editing of the Creed films’ fight scenes do a great job of putting viewers within the action, but all of that wouldn’t work nearly as well if Jordan (who also played a talented high school quarterback on NBC’s Friday Night Lights) didn’t showcase fast hands and good form in the ring.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Jamie Foxx
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Oliver Stone’s 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 — a high school quarterback in his home state of Texas — does his best to ground the frenetic action with a smooth throwing motion and some real athleticism.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Hilary Swank
Image Credit: Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett Collection Swank won an Oscar for playing an up-and-coming boxer who meets a tragic end in the ring in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. She reportedly trained extensively to play a fighter, and it shows in her footwork and fighting style.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Adam Sandler
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection There’s no arguing with the (onscreen) results of Happy Gilmore’s unorthodox approach to hitting a golf ball, taken from the character’s days as a hockey player. But there’s a reason no one on the professional tours swings like that.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? Amateur
Cristo Fernández
Image Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+ Most 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 Fernández, 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 “Fútbol Is Life” Rojas.
ALL-STAR OR AMATEUR? All-star
Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Although both are less than 6 feet tall, Snipes and Harrelson showed some real basketball skill as playground hoops hustlers in Ron Shelton’s 1992 cult favorite White Men Can’t 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’s conceit.
ALL-STARS OR AMATEURS? All-stars
Rodney Dangerfield
Image Credit: Orion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection The 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’s swing is atrocious.
All-star or amateur? Amateur, on purpose
Walter Matthau and Tim Robbins
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection (2) The 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’s Morris Buttermaker) who somehow got near the cusp of the big leagues despite obviously terrible mechanics. Robbins’ Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham had a “million-dollar arm but a five-cent head,” and his delivery wasn’t much better than the latter. The less said about Buttermaker’s briefly seen pitching in The Bad News Bears, the better.
All-stars or amateurs? Rank amateurs
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