Tootsie is a 1982 American comedy film that tells the story of a talented but volatile actor whose reputation for being difficult forces him to go to extreme lengths to land a job. The movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange, with a supporting cast that includes Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Geena Davis, Bill Murray, and producer/director Sydney Pollack. Tootsie was adapted by Larry Gelbart, Barry Levinson (uncredited), Elaine May (uncredited) and Murray Schisgal from the story by Gelbart.

In 1998 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The theme song to the film, "It Might Be You" sung by singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop, and composed by Dave Grusin / Marilyn and Alan Bergman was a Top 40 hit in the U.S., and also hit #1 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart.

Jessica Lange won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Julie Nichols. The movie earned a total of 10 Academy Awards nominations.

Plot[link]

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a respected but perfectionist actor. Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he is so difficult to work with. According to his long-suffering agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack), Michael's attention to detail and difficult reputation got him fired from playing a tomato in a television commercial, because the idea of a tomato sitting down was "illogical" to him. After four months without a job, Michael hears of an opening on the soap opera Southwest General from his girlfriend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr), who tries out for a role but doesn't get it. In desperation, he dresses as a woman, auditions as "Dorothy Michaels" and wins the part. Michael takes the job to raise $8000 to produce his friend Jeff's play, Return To Love Canal. However over time, his portrayal of Dorothy Michaels becomes a hit.

When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed (he wanted to try on her clothes in order to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits), he covers up by professing he wants to sleep with her. They have sex despite his better judgment about her self-esteem issues. Michael believes Sandy is too emotionally fragile to handle the truth about him winning the part of Dorothy. Their relationship, combined with his deception, complicates his now busy schedule. Exacerbating matters further, he is strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman). At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a line that she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive to, she throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked and later tells Dorothy that she likes "her," but not in a romantic way.

Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn (George Gaynes) and Julie's widowed father Les (Charles Durning). Les even proposes marriage. Michael's roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Bill Murray), and George Fields are in on the masquerade, and watch in amazement as the situation escalates out of control. The tipping point comes when, due to Dorothy's popularity as a feisty hospital administrator, the show's producers want to extend her contract for another year. Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself. When the cast is forced to perform the show live, he improvises and reveals that he is actually the character's twin brother who took her place to avenge her. The revelation allows everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie, however, is so outraged, and she slugs him in the stomach off-camera. Some weeks later, Michael waits for Julie outside the studio. When he confesses that "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man", she forgives him.

Cast[link]

• Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels
• Jessica Lange as Julie Nichols
• Teri Garr as Sandy Lester
• Dabney Coleman as Ron Carlisle
• Charles Durning as Leslie "Les" Nichols
• Bill Murray as Jeff Slater
• Sydney Pollack as George Fields
• George Gaynes as John Van Horn
• Geena Davis as April Page
• Doris Belack as Rita Marshall
• Lynne Thigpen as Jo
• Estelle Getty as Middle Aged Woman

Academy Awards[link]

The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards; Lange was the only winner, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.^[2]

The nominations were:

• Best Picture: Sydney Pollack and Dick Richards
• Best Actor in a Leading Role: Dustin Hoffman
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Teri Garr
• Best Director: Sydney Pollack
• Best Original Screenplay: Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal and Don McGuire
• Best Original Song ("It Might Be You"): Dave Grusin (music), Alan Bergman (lyrics) and Marilyn Bergman (lyrics)
• Best Sound: Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander and Les Lazarowitz
• Best Cinematography: Owen Roizman
• Best Film Editing: Fredric Steinkamp and William Steinkamp

Production[link]

The idea of having director Sydney Pollack playing Hoffman’s agent, George Fields, was Hoffman’s. Pollack initially resisted the idea, but Hoffman eventually convinced him to take the role.^[3]

To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched the film La Cage aux Folles several times.^[4]

Scenes set in the New York City Russian Tea Room were filmed in the actual restaurant.

Reception[link]

Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it 4 out of 4 stars and observing that:

Tootsie' is the kind of Movie with a capital M that they used to make in the 1940s, when they weren’t afraid to mix up absurdity with seriousness, social comment with farce, and a little heartfelt tenderness right in there with the laughs. The movie also manages to make some lighthearted but well-aimed observations about sexism. It also pokes satirical fun at soap operas, New York show business agents, and the Manhattan social pecking order. This movie gets you coming and going.^[5]

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating.^[6]

Its opening weekend gross in the United States was $5,540,470.^[1] Its final gross in the United States was $177,200,000,^[1] making it the second highest grossing movie of 1982 after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Even to this day, it remains one of the highest grossing comedy films.

In 2011, ABC aired a primetime special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, that counted down the best movies chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by both ABC and People. Tootsie was selected as the #5 Best Comedy.

Video releases[link]

The film was first released on CED Videodisc in 1983 then on VHS by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1985 and on DVD in 2001. These releases were distributed by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment. A special 25th Anniversary edition DVD, released by Sony Pictures, arrived in 2008.

See also[link]

• Cross-dressing in film and television

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tootsie

• Tootsie at the Internet Movie Database
• Tootsie at the TCM Movie Database
• Tootsie at Box Office Mojo
• Tootsie at Rotten Tomatoes
• The 25th Anniversary Tootsie by Billy Mernit