Brad Gilbert likes tennis so much that he has trouble sleeping. âI get up at three,â Gilbert said the other day, at the Malibu Racquet Club, outside L.A., while some middle-aged hackers played doubles. âI love waking up, thinking of all the details. My entire adult life, Iâm just a tennis guy. Iâve never had a moment where I donât like doing and being a part of the tennis.â
Life, so far, in the tennis: player (top five), author (âWinning Uglyâ), commentator (ESPN), actor (â âRed Oaksâ on Amazon. I was Dr. Feinbergâthe club champion!â), real coach to real players (Agassi, Roddick, Murray, Coco Gauff), and, recently, real coach to fake players (Zendaya, Josh OâConnor, and Mike Faist, for âChallengersâ).
âI did Z before I started coaching Coco,â he said. Zendaya rooted for Coco from afar as she won last yearâs U.S. Open, but theyâve yet to meet. âCoco said she sent her the biggest bouquet of flowers that sheâd ever gotten in her life. Z came to the finals of Indian Wells, but Coco lost in the semis. She was so gutted.â
Gilbert, who is sixty-two, was wearing a bucket hat atop a bald head, with a neck gaiter and Nike sweats. His phone buzzed with texts from Gauffâs agent. Heâd planned to be with her for the Madrid Open, but heâd been waylaid by dental work.
Gilbert got the movie gig through his daughter, Julianâa reverse nepo-baby situation. Julian was working for the producer Amy Pascal, who had the âChallengersâ script. âShe happened to tell Amy, âMy dadâs, like, the tennis guy,â â he said.
Movie coaching wasnât like professional coaching. âAt first, they would practice with just the butt end, no head, and no ball,â Gilbert said. But he used the same incentive strategy he does with the pros. âI always had Jolly Ranchers,â he said. âWhen Iâd give them to Coco, sheâd be, like, âStop!â But then, after she won the Open, she got me probably ten thousand Ranchers. The biggest fuckinâ box you have ever seen. And a bunch of flavors that Iâd never even seen before. I have a couple of flavors that are bad luck, peach and raspberry.â Why? âItâs just bad luck.â He added, âMy grandfather drove a cab in San Francisco for fifty years, and he always had Jolly Ranchers in his cab. Literally, my entire career, I always had a Jolly Rancher in my mouth. Sometimes I do on ESPN. They get pissed. âB.G., spit out the fuckinâ Rancher!â Bad habit. Thatâs why my teeth are fucked up.â
Gilbertâs wife, Kim, also consulted on the film. She sent the actors tennis tape to study. OâConnorâs character was modelled on a poor manâs Nick Kyrgios, and Zendayaâs on tall bruisers like Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, and Aryna Sabalenka. Faistâs character was an elegant player. âLike a Fed or Sampras, with a one-handed backhand,â Gilbert said. âMike was a high-school player with a two-handed backhand. He was so pissed, like, âFuck, I donât wanna hit this one-handed backhand!â I was, like, âDude, I didnât write it!â â The three worked together, with Gilbert, every day, for six weeks straight. âThe last day of our practicing routine, Z got a pin made with me on it, with hair, from, like, the nineties,â Gilbert said. âShe gave it to everybody. It kind of choked me up.â
Gilbert had some experience coaching famous non-players. He trained Robin Williams for a charity doubles match with Andre Agassi against Pete Sampras and Billy Crystal. âBilly was giving him shit that he was taking the tennis seriously,â Gilbert said. A friend of Gilbertâs, the basketball player Chris Mullin, once showed up at his house with Michael Jordan. âThey knocked on the door, and it was, like, âOh, shit!â â Gilbert said. It was Jordanâs first time playing tennis; he tried to wager on it.
Gilbert grabbed a ball and practiced some serve tosses. Luca Guadagnino, the director, had Gilbert choreograph all the tennis points for the movie. Gilbert also lined up a former player for a bit part as Faistâs coach in the film, Karl, but the guy cancelled at the last minute. âThe A2ââthe second assistant directorââhe was, like, âB.G., youâre gonna be fucking Karl,â â he recalled. âNext thing you know, they put the wig on me, put the mustache on me, put these clothes onâthereâs Coach Karl.â He appears for a few seconds, yelling, in a heavy German accent, âMore aggressif! â
Gilbertâs phone buzzed again. It was Gauffâs dad, letting him know that the team had found Gilbert a 7 a.m. flight to Nice the next day. It was going to be a busy three monthsâItalian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, coaching and commentating. But heâd find time to play. âI go hit on the wall at least two, three days a week at 6 a.m.,â he said. âI hate coming back and missing balls. Letâs say Iâm not gonna playâif Iâm in my room, I just swing my racket. Then you donât get blisters.â â¦