In 1973, Billie Jean King, then on her way to becoming one of the greatest tennis players of all time, accepted a challenge from retired champion Bobby Riggs for an exhibition match rightly called the Battle of the Sexes. Now, Emma Stone and Steve Carell go head to head as King and Riggs in the first trailer for the film named after that iconic match, with plenty of trash talk along the way, as feminist King and self-described “chauvinist pig” Riggs prepare to compete. “Don’t get me wrong, I love women in the bedroom and in the kitchen,” says Carell as Riggs, to which Stone’s King retorts, “The more nonsense you spout, the worse it’s gonna be when you lose.”
The film will also chronicle King and Riggs’ off-court dramas: Riggs, a known hustler, is seen taunting a Gamblers Anonymous meeting as he also attempts to return to his glory days after retirement. King, meanwhile, was fighting for equal pay and was in a secret relationship with her secretary, Marilyn Barnett.
Battle of the Sexes, directed by Little Miss Sunshine’s Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, hits theaters Sept. 22.
