Tootsie

For the candy, see Tootsie Rolls.

Not to be confused with Tootsi.

Tootsie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sydney Pollack
Produced by	Sydney Pollack Dick Richards
Screenplay by	Murray Schisgal Barry Levinson Elaine May
Story by	Larry Gelbart
Starring	Dustin Hoffman Jessica Lange Teri Garr Dabney Coleman Charles Durning
Music by	Dave Grusin
Cinematography	Owen Roizman
Editing by	Fredric Steinkamp William Steinkamp
Studio	Mirage Enterprises
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 1982 (1982-12-17)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$21 million
Box office	$177,200,000

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

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a respected but perfectionist actor on the verge of turning 40. 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 friend 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. During this time, he begins a balancing act of having to "cross-dress" in order to work and hiding it from his "girlfriend" Sandy.

When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed to try on her clothes in order to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits, he covers up by professing desire; they sleep together 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 romantic 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 now want to extend her contract for another year. What once started as a lark has now become for Michael a trap.

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 she slugs him in the stomach off-camera.

Some weeks later, Michael waits for Julie 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 she forgives him.

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

The film was nominated for a total of ten Academy Awards, winning only one.

The nominations were:

• Best Picture (Nomination)
• Best Actor in a Leading Role - Dustin Hoffman (Nomination)
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Teri Garr (Nomination)
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Jessica Lange (WINNER)
• Best Directing - Sydney Pollack (Nomination)
• Best Original Screenplay (Nomination)
• Best Original Song (It Might Be You) (Nomination)
• Best Sound - Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander and Les Lazarowitz (Nomination)
• Best Cinematography (Nomination)
• Best Film Editing (Nomination)

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.

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

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. 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.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating.

Its opening weekend gross in the United States was $5,540,470. Its final gross in the United States was $177,200,000, 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.

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #62
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - #2
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • It Might Be You - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • Rita: "I'd like to make her look a little more attractive. How far can you pull back?" Cameraman: "How do you feel about Cleveland?" - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #69

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

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

• Cross-dressing in film and television

External links

• 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