Arts & Entertainment
Lily Tomlin and the Story of Billie Jean King — a Match Made for the Stage
Before our interview began, Lily Tomlin told WTTW News that in the 1950s she hitchhiked to Chicago from her hometown of Detroit.
It was December and she was wearing ballet shoes.
The actor and comedian is 85 years old now and a legend many times over. She is back in Chicago, and this time she didn’t hitchhike. She was here to support “Billie Jean,” a play about another living legend — Billie Jean King, the groundbreaking champion of tennis and equality.
We spoke at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where this summer “Billie Jean” is center court and center stage.
The show was “developed by special arrangement” with Tomlin and three others (Jane Wagner, Harriet Newman Leve and Stephanie Sandberg). We wanted to know what that credit meant – and found out that, ultimately, she’s really just a big fan of the player and the person.
Lily Tomlin is pictured in an interview with WTTW News on July 23, 2025. (Nicole Cardos / WTTW News)
WTTW NEWS: Welcome back to Chicago, Ms. Tomlin. What was your involvement in “Billie Jean?”
Lily Tomlin: Not terribly arduous. I didn’t do very much. I was expecting to be the police guarding the true feminist history of Billie Jean, but I didn’t have to do that. They got it right.
Have you been friends with Billie Jean for a long time?
Tomlin: No, I’m not good friends with her at all. I’ve followed her, and I always admired her. And I saw the battle with Bobby Riggs.
You saw the Battle of the Sexes in person?
Tomlin: Yeah. Where did that take place?
I remember watching it on TV as a kid, but I don’t recall. [NOTE: the Houston Astrodome]
Tomlin: Yeah, I went with a couple of friends. How about it!
Were you a tennis fan already or did she kind of make you one?
Tomlin: Yeah, she did sort of make me one because I wasn’t sports-minded. Although I was very athletic and very physical in my own performances. [At the time] I was just so, you know, bent on pursuing what I was going to do and hopefully, you know, leave my mark on society. I didn’t really succeed at either. In fact, I think I’ll just quit!
You were busy putting on ballet shoes and hitchhiking to Chicago…
Tomlin: Yeah, I was doing all that stuff. I was putting myself in really close danger.
OK, so you’re not close friends, but you know her a bit.
Tomlin: Yeah, I know her a little. I sat behind her at the first incarnation of the play. She seemed to enjoy it. She’s pretty easygoing, but I don’t know her well enough to really know. I feel like I’m a good friend, but I don’t have anything to show for it. [laughs]
You don’t have a signed racket or anything.
Tomlin: No, I should have really made a big point of getting some goods, you know? Kind of like OJ had all that memorabilia that he — no, I wouldn’t want to do that either.
The cast of “Billie Jean” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Justin Barbin Press)
On and off the courts, Billie Jean was a champion of equality.
Tomlin: She’s absolutely unbelievable. You don’t have to be a sports fan or an athlete to appreciate Billie Jean. She just did everything. If you’ve ever been underestimated or dismissed or told to stay in your own lane, you can relate to Billie Jean.
She listened to no one who told her that kind of thing, because she was so right about her place in the world, and how she was going to make it better when she saw things that were wrong, like inequitable pay. She was just an equality queen. I loved her.
And she boosted the profile of the sport. By the end of the 70s, it was the era of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova – but I think they were there because she was there first.
Tomlin. Yes, that’s true.
So now you’re telling her story in Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
Tomlin: And it’s a wonderful place!
I hear the ending was tweaked recently. Have you seen it?
Tomlin: No, I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve seen it on tape, but I’m very excited to see it in person.
I noticed your middle name is also “Jean.” [she was born “Mary Jean Tomlin” in 1939]
Tomlin: Yes!
Maybe there’s a kinship there?
Tomlin: Of course!
In the early days you played Chicago clubs like the famous Mr. Kelly’s. Give us a sense of what it was like to play here in those days when you were still developing your act.
Tomlin: Well, I thought I had something. I was just cheeky enough to have that attitude. I was very eager to try out anything, and Mr. Kelly’s was pretty hip.
I recall seeing you on “Sesame Street” early on.
Tomlin: Right. Oh, I got around quite a bit.
And then the Robert Altman movies and — we could talk to you all day about your career. Anything else that you want people to get from “Billie Jean?”
Tomlin: Yes, I want them to see that it’s not just telling the legend of a sports icon. We’re kind of activating the next generation of change-makers. It makes people see the power of what one voice can do in challenging the system. You really want to see that come to fruition and be replicated. More people need the courage to stand up and speak for what they know is right or feel is right and take what comes with that, because it’s always at a cost of some sort, and it was to Billie Jean too. She had to go through some tough times.
What do you think about the political climate?
Tomlin: Well, Jane Fonda is a good friend of mine and I very often will do an event with her about the climate, but she’s absolutely the leader. She’s the spear point there.
Chilina Kennedy as “Billie Jean” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. (Justin Barbin Press)
Is there something I didn’t ask you about the show that you wanted to say?
Tomlin: It’s unique and wonderful and it’s very stylized, you know? It transports people through memory and time in so many ways.
So it’s more impressionistic than, say, literal and chronological.
Tomlin: Yes, that’s right.
And what do you think of Chilina Kennedy, who portrays the adult Billie Jean? She has big tennis shoes to fill.
Tomlin: Oh, she’s very good!
“Billie Jean” plays at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through Aug. 10.
Marc Vitali is the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation Arts Correspondent.
