Tootsie was partly inspired by a play McGuire wrote in the early 1970s, and was first made into a screenplay in 1979 byDick Richards,Bob Kaufman, andRobert Evans. Richards, who was selected as director, introduced the project to Hoffman, who obtained completecreative control after signing on: revisions to the screenplay and the replacement as director of Richards and his successor,Hal Ashby, by Pollack delayed the production, which began in November 1981.Principal photography took place across New York and in New Jersey, including inManhattan,Hurley, andFort Lee. The film's theme song, "It Might Be You", performed byStephen Bishop, peaked at No. 25 on theBillboard Hot 100.
Tootsie was theatrically released in the U.S. on December 17, 1982, byColumbia Pictures. It grossed $241 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest grossing film of 1982, and received critical acclaim for its humor, Hoffman's and Lange's performances, dialogue, and social commentary. It was nominated for ten awards at the55th Academy Awards, includingBest Picture, and wonBest Supporting Actress for Lange. In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the U.S.National Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[2]
Michael Dorsey is a respected actor, but nobody inNew York City wants to hire him because he is a perfectionist and difficult to work with. He makes ends meet by working as a server in a restaurant and teaching acting classes.
After many months without an acting job, Michael hears of an opening on the popular daytimesoap operaSouthwest General from his friend and acting student Sandy Lester, who unsuccessfully auditions for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. In desperation, after an argument with his agent, Michael disguises himself as a woman named Dorothy Michaels and auditions forSouthwest General. He is cast as Emily Kimberly. Michael takes the job as a way to raise $8,000 to produce a play by his roommate Jeff Slater, which will star him and Sandy.
As Dorothy, Michael plays Emily Kimberly as a plausible feminist, which surprises the other actors and the crew, who expected Dorothy to give a mild-mannered performance, in contrast to the empowered "Gloria Steinem type" suggested in the script. His character quickly becomes a national sensation.
When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed because he wants to try on her clothes for ideas for Dorothy's wardrobe, he covers up by claiming he wants to have sex with her. Sandy is receptive and they sleep together. Exacerbating matters further, Michael is attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols, a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle.
At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a pick-up line to which she had told Dorothy she would be receptive, she throws a drink in his face. Later, as Dorothy, when he makes tentative advances, Julie (having just ended her relationship with Ron on Dorothy's advice) makes it known that she is not a lesbian.
Meanwhile, Dorothy contends with her own admirers: older cast member John Van Horn and Julie's widowed father, Les. Les proposes marriage, insisting that Dorothy think about it before answering. When Michael returns home, he finds John, who almost forces himself on Dorothy until Jeff walks in on them. A few minutes later, Sandy arrives, asking why he has not answered her calls. Michael admits he is in love with another woman, and Sandy screams and breaks up with him.
Due to Dorothy's popularity, the show's producers want to extend her contract for a year. When a technical problem forces the cast to perform live, Michael extricates himself by improvising a revelation about Emily: that she is actually Edward, Emily's twin brother who took her place to avenge her. This allows everybody a way out, but Julie is so outraged at Michael's deception that she punches him in the stomach once the cameras have stopped rolling and storms off.
Some weeks later, Michael is moving forward with producing Jeff's play. He returns Les's engagement ring, and Les says, "The only reason you're still living is because I never kissed you." Despite his anger, Les admits that Michael was good company as Dorothy, and Michael buys him a beer.
Michael later waits for Julie outside the studio. She is reluctant to talk to him, but he tells her that he and her father played pool and had a good time. She admits she misses Dorothy. Michael tells her Dorothy is within him and he misses her too. He says, "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man." Julie forgives him and they walk away together, engaged in conversation.
In the 1970s, fashion company executiveCharles Evans began filmmaking, following in the path of his brotherRobert Evans, the actor, producer and studio executive, "because I enjoy movies very much. I have the time to do it. And I believe if done wisely, it can be a profitable business."[3] In the early 1970s,Don McGuire'sWould I Lie to You?, a play about an unemployed male actor who cross-dresses to find jobs, was shopped around Hollywood for years until it came to the attention of comedian and actorBuddy Hackett in 1978. Interested in playing the talent agent, Hackett showed Evans the script and Evans purchased anoption on the play. Delays in the film's production forced Evans to renew the option,[4] but in 1979, he cowrote a screenplay based on the play with directorDick Richards and screenwriterBob Kaufman.[5] A few months into the process, Richards shared the screenplay withDustin Hoffman, his partner in a company that bought and developed film-development properties. Hoffman wanted completecreative control and Evans agreed to remove himself from the screenwriting, instead becoming a producer of the film, which was retitledTootsie.[4] Before Hoffman officially became involved, his role had been offered toPeter Sellers andMichael Caine.[6]
The film remained in development for another year as producers awaited the revised script.[7] As preproduction began, the project was further delayed when Richards left as director over "creative differences".[8] He instead became one of the film's producers, andHal Ashby became the director.Columbia then forced Ashby to quit because of the threat of legal action that would ensue if his postproduction commitments onLookin' to Get Out were not fulfilled.[9] In an attempt to interestSydney Pollack in directing, Hoffman askedElaine May to work on the script. She provided a few weeks of work, adding the character Jeff Slater played byBill Murray, and fleshing out Sandy Lester, the character played byTeri Garr, as well as suggesting Garr for the role. May was arguably the most significant of a number of writers who reworked the script (such asBarry Levinson), yet remained uncredited.[10][11] In November 1981, Pollack agreed to direct and produce the film at Columbia's suggestion.[12]
Hoffman suggested that Pollack play Michael's agent George Fields, a role written forDabney Coleman. Pollack resisted, but Hoffman convinced him; it was Pollack's first acting work in years.[13] Pollack cast Coleman as the sexist, arrogant soap opera director Ron Carlisle.[14]
To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched the 1978 filmLa Cage aux Folles several times.[15] He also visited the set ofGeneral Hospital for research and conducted extensive makeup tests. Hoffman has said he was shocked to learn that although makeup could be used to allow him to credibly appear as a woman, he would never be a beautiful one. His epiphany occurred when he realized that although he found Dorothy interesting, he would not have spoken to her at a party because she was not beautiful, and because of this, he had missed the opportunity for many conversations with interesting women. He concluded that he had never regardedTootsie as a comedy.[16] Voice, speech, and body language expertLillian Glass taught Hoffman to speak like and have the body language of a woman.[17] Scenes set atNew York'sRussian Tea Room were filmed there, with additional scenes shot inCentral Park and in front ofBloomingdale's. Scenes were also filmed inHurley, New York, and at National Video Studios in New York.[18] Additional filming took place inFort Lee, New Jersey.[19]
The film grossed $63.8 million internationally[22] and was the highest-grossing film in Germany, with a gross of $19 million.[23] Worldwide, it grossed $241 million.
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 91% of 53 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Tootsie doesn't squander its high-concept comedy premise, with fine dialogue and sympathetic treatment of the characters"[24]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 88 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[25]
Roger Ebert praised the film, awarding it four out of four stars and writing: "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...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 theManhattan social pecking order."[26]
In 2006,Writers Guild of America ranked its screenplay 17th in WGA’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.[43] 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 andPeople Weekly Magazine.Tootsie was selected as theNo. 5 Best Comedy.[44]
The film was first released onCED Videodisc in 1983, onVHS andBetamax videocassettes byRCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1985 and onDVD in 2001. These releases were distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. The film was also released bythe Criterion Collection in aLaserDisc edition in 1992. A special 25th-anniversary edition DVD was released bySony Pictures in 2008.[48] The film was released onBlu-ray disc in 2013, but only for selected international territories such as Germany and Japan. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD by the Criterion Collection on December 16, 2014.[49]
^abCook, Philip S.; Gomery, Douglas; and Lichty, Lawrence Wilson (1989)American Media: The Wilson Quarterly Reader. Washington, D.C.: Wilson Center Press, p. 95,ISBN0943875102.
^Thompson, Kristin (2001)Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, p. 75,ISBN0674010639.
^Trott, William C. "'Glimpses': Los Angeles speech pathologist Lillian Glass has worked with Hollywood clients like Dustin Hoffman to perfect his woman's voice for 'Tootsie,'."UPI.March 10, 1988.
^Maslin, Janet. "'Tootsie': A Woman Who Is Dustin Hoffman."New York Times. July 13, 1982.
