Tootsie

Tootsie (1982) is about an unemployed actor who dresses as a woman to get a part on a soap opera. Michael Dorsey is talented and impossible; nobody will work with him. He gets the job as Dorothy Michaels, and in that role, for the first time in his life, he notices people listening to him. What Dustin Hoffman took from his makeup test more or less states the film's thesis. He realised the makeup could make him a credible woman but never a beautiful one. Then he thought: if he met Dorothy at a party he would not have spoken to her, purely because of how she looked. He had been missing interesting women that way for years. Hoffman has said he never regarded Tootsie as a comedy. The production was not smooth. Director Dick Richards left over creative disagreements, then Hal Ashby left over scheduling. Sydney Pollack took over in November 1981, arriving with final cut and casting authority. The script had many hands. Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal are credited; Elaine May worked on it without credit, adding the character Jeff Slater and developing Sandy's part. Barry Levinson and others also passed through it. Jessica Lange won Best Supporting Actress. The film made 177.2 million dollars in the United States and was the second highest grossing film of 1982 after E.T. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: classic American comedy, films about acting, and sharp dialogue. Less good for: what it has to say about gender belongs to the eighties, and it uses Dorothy's experience as an education for a man. It has no interest in trans experience, and some scenes are uncomfortable now.