Tootsie
Tootsie is a
1982 comedy film, which tells the story of a talented, but volatile
actor whose reputation for being difficult makes him unemployable. In desperation, he goes to extraordinary lengths to land a job. It stars
Dustin Hoffman,
Jessica Lange,
Teri Garr,
Dabney Coleman,
Charles Durning,
Bill Murray,
Sydney Pollack,
George Gaynes,
Lynne Thigpen, and
Geena Davis.
The movie was adapted by
Larry Gelbart,
Barry Levinson (uncredited),
Elaine May (uncredited) and
Murray Schisgal from the story by Gelbart and
Don McGuire. It was directed by Pollack.
The movie ranked #62 on the
American Film Institute list of
greatest American movies of all time and #2 on its list of
greatest comedies, and has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
Michael Dorsey (Hoffman) is a respected, talented and
perfectionist actor on the verge of turning forty. Nobody wants to hire him anymore because he is so difficult to work with. Not having worked in four months, he eventually hears of an opening in a
soap opera from his friend Sandy Lester (Garr), who is trying out for the role. In desperation, he
cross-dresses, auditions as 'Dorothy Michaels' and gets the part.
Michael thinks it's 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 up 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.
Complicating things even further, he is strongly attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Lange). She is already in an unhealthy relationship with the amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Coleman). When Michael (at a party, out of his Dorothy guise) pitches a line to Julie that she previously told Dorothy she'd be thrilled to receive, she throws a drink in his face. Yet when he makes tentative advances (as Dorothy), Julie is shocked to think Dorothy might be gay, and later tells "her" that she likes her, but not in a romantic way.
Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with, an older male cast member, John Van Horn (Gaynes), and Julie's widowed father, Les (Durning). Michael's roommate, writer Jeff Slater (Murray), and his agent, George Fields (Pollack), are in on the masquerade and watch in amazement as the situation barrels out of control.
Michael finds an ingenuous way to extricate himself. In a scene on the soap they are forced to perform live, he unmasks himself, revealing that he is actually the character's brother, who took her place to avenge her, just the sort of weird plot twist soaps are noted for. This gives everybody a more-or-less graceful way out. Julie is so shocked and outraged, she slugs him in the stomach (when the cameras are turned off). But Michael touchingly confesses that "...I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man." and she eventually forgives him.
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Cross-dressing in film and television
