Tootsie

Tootsie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sydney Pollack
Produced by	Sydney Pollack Dick Richards
Written by	Larry Gelbart Murray Schisgal Barry Levinson Elaine May
Starring	Dustin Hoffman Jessica Lange Teri Garr Dabney Coleman
Music by	Dave Grusin
Cinematography	Owen Roizman
Editing by	Fredric Steinkamp William Steinkamp
Studio	Mirage
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 1982
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$21 million
Gross revenue	$177.2 million

Tootsie is a 1982 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, Bill Murray, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, Lynne Thigpen, Marg Helgenberger and Geena Davis.^[1] Tootsie was adapted by Larry Gelbart, Barry Levinson (uncredited), Elaine May (uncredited) and Murray Schisgal from the story by Gelbart. It was directed by Pollack.

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" by singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop, was a Top 40 hit in the U.S.

Plot

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a respected but perfectionist actor on the verge of turning forty. Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he is so difficult to work with or he is either too old or too young for a role. Not having worked in four months, he eventually hears of an opening on the soap opera Southwest General (a parody of General Hospital) from his friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr), who initially tries out for the role but doesn't get it. In desperation, he cross-dresses, auditions as ”Dorothy Michaels” and eventually wins the part.

Michael thinks it is just a temporary job to pay the bills, but he proves to be so popular as a feisty hospital administrator that, to his dismay, the producers sign him to a long-term contract. Dorothy is such a hit that she is even featured on the covers of a number of well-known magazines, with such celebrities as Andy Warhol.

The masquerade begins to fall to pieces when Michael is caught by Sandy while taking off his clothes and to try on hers (to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits). He tries to stall the moment by seducing Sandy and reluctantly starting a romantic relationship with her, which proves to be difficult because of his now busy schedule and desire to keep his job secret from Sandy.

Complicating things even further, he is strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), a single mother and already in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman).

Throughout the film, Michael realizes that he and Ron are not entirely different when it comes to women. During dinner, Julie tells Michael how she once had dinner ready for Ron, who never showed up. At that moment, Michael remembers his dinner appointment with his friend Sandy. Ron also claims that he never promised Julie that he would remain faithful, which Michael had said about Sandy.

When Michael (at a party as himself) approaches Julie with a line that she had previously told Dorothy she'd be receptive to, she instead throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked to think Dorothy might be a lesbian and later tells “her” 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), both of whom fall for Dorothy, Les even proposing marriage. Michael’s roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Bill Murray), and his agent, George Fields (Sydney Pollack), are in on the masquerade and watch in amazement as the situation barrels out of control.

Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself. When the cast is forced to perform a scene live, he improvises and reveals that he is actually the character’s twin brother who took her place to avenge her, just the sort of weird plot twist for which soaps are noted (in particular the General Hospital “Sally Armitage is really Max Hedges!” storyline). The revelation allows everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie is so shocked and outraged, she slugs him in the stomach (after the cameras are turned off).

Some weeks later, Michael, having made amends with Julie's father, waits for her outside the studio and touchingly confesses that “…I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man” and since he already became good friends as Dorothy he claims "I just gotta learn how to do it without the dress." She forgives him and they have a playful argument over Julie wanting to wear one of Michael's outfits.

Cast

• 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

Win

• Best Supporting Actress - Jessica Lange

Nominations

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

Production

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.^[2]

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

Reception

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. This movie gets you coming and going.^[3]

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an 89% fresh rating.^[4]

Its opening weekend gross in the United States was $5,540,470.^[5] Its final gross in the United States was $177,200,000,^[5] making it the highest grossing comedy of 1982.

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #62
• 2000 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #2
• 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #69

Video release

The film was released in VHS in the United States in 1983, distributed by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment.

See also

• Cross-dressing in film and television

Notes

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tootsie

• Tootsie at the Internet Movie Database
• Tootsie at the TCM Movie Database
• The 25th Anniversary Tootsie by Billy Mernit