<P> The film dramatizes the events leading up to the 1973 match between Billie Jean King ( Emma Stone ) and Robert Larimore Riggs ( Steve Carell ) , and their personal lives . King and Gladys Heldman ( Sarah Silverman ) confront Jack Kramer ( Bill Pullman ) who has announced a tennis tournament where the top prize for women is one - eighth of the men 's prize , despite equal ticket sales . King and Heldman threaten to start their own tour but Kramer wo n't alter the terms , citing the inferiority of women 's tennis . He later expels the women who join the new tour from the Lawn Tennis Association . The women 's tour struggles until Heldman wins a lucrative sponsorship from Virginia Slims cigarettes . Billie Jean begins an affair with Marilyn Barnett ( Andrea Riseborough ) , her hairdresser , threatening her marriage to Larry King ( Austin Stowell ) . </P>
who plays jack in battle of the sexes
( Bill Pullman