tootsie

Michael Dorsey is a respected actor, but nobody in New 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 daytime soap opera Southwest General from his friend and acting student Sandy Lester, who unsuccessfully auditions for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. In desperation, and following an argument with his agent, Michael disguises himself as a woman named "Dorothy Michaels" and auditions for Southwest General himself, and 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 himself 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 with a daughter from a previous relationship and 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 previously 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 per Dorothy's advice) makes it known that she is not a lesbian.

Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: 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.

The tipping point comes when, due to Dorothy's popularity, the show's producers want to extend her contract for another year. Michael extricates himself when a technical problem forces the cast to perform live, 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 finally admits she misses Dorothy. Michael tells her Dorothy is within him and he misses her too. He remarks, "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.

{{Cast listing|

• Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey, an out-of-work actor who disguises himself as a woman, "Dorothy Michaels", to get a role on the soap opera Southwest General
• Jessica Lange as Julie Nichols, an actress
• Teri Garr as Sandy Lester, an actress
• Dabney Coleman as Ron Carlisle, the director
• Charles Durning as Leslie "Les" Nichols, Julie's father
• Bill Murray as Jeff Slater, a playwright and Michael's roommate
• Sydney Pollack as George Fields, Michael's agent
• George Gaynes as John Van Horn, a soap opera actor
• Geena Davis as April Page, a soap opera actress
• Doris Belack as Rita Marshall, the producer
• Ellen Foley as Jacqui, a production aide
• Lynne Thigpen as Jo, a production aide
• Amy Lawrence as Amy, Julie's daughter
• Christine Ebersole as Linda, an actress at Michael's birthday party
• Anne Shropshire as Mrs. Crawley, Julie's babysitter
• Susan Egbert as Diane, Jeff's girlfriend

}}

In the 1970s, fashion company executive Charles Evans began filmmaking, following in the path of his brother Robert Evans, a successful 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."{{cite news |date=July 28, 1995 |first=Claudia |last=Eller |author-link=Claudia Eller |title=Company Town : Real Key Is How Goldwyn Is Treated |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-07-28-fi-28893-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times }} In the early 1970s, Don McGuire's Would I Lie to You?, a play about an unemployed male actor who cross-dresses in order to find jobs, was shopped around Hollywood for several years until it came to the attention of comedian and actor Buddy Hackett in 1978. Interested in playing the role of the talent agent, Hackett showed Evans the script, and Evans purchased an option on the play. Delays in the film's production forced Evans to renew the option,Cook, Philip S.; Gomery, Douglas; and Lichty, Lawrence Wilson (1989) American Media: The Wilson Quarterly Reader. Washington, D.C.: Wilson Center Press, p. 95, {{ISBN|0943875102}}. but in 1979, he cowrote a screenplay based on the play with director Dick Richards and screenwriter Bob Kaufman.Thompson, Kristin (2001) Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, p. 75, {{ISBN|0674010639}}. A few months into the process, Richards shared the screenplay with Dustin Hoffman, his partner in a company that bought and developed film-development properties. Hoffman wanted complete creative control and Evans agreed to remove himself from screenwriting tasks, instead becoming a producer of the film, which was retitled Tootsie. Before Hoffman officially became involved, his role had been offered to Peter Sellers and Michael Caine.{{cite web|last=Evans|first=Bradford|title=The Lost Roles of Peter Sellers|date=31 January 2013|website=Splitsider|url=http://splitsider.com/2013/01/the-lost-roles-of-peter-sellers/|access-date=15 August 2015|archive-date=14 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714154256/http://splitsider.com/2013/01/the-lost-roles-of-peter-sellers/|url-status=dead}}

The film remained in development for another year as producers waited for a revised script.{{cite news|title=Marilyn Beck's Hollywood: Angie Dickinson bares all for 'Dressed to Kill role|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JiAqAAAAIBAJ&pg=6918,2335828&dq=tootsie+filming&hl=en|access-date=September 30, 2013|newspaper=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|date=July 25, 1980|page=3}} As preproduction began, the project experienced additional delays when Richards left as director over "creative differences".{{cite news|last=Blowen|first=Michael|title=Dustin Hoffman tells why he was tough about 'Tootsie'|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/294165702|access-date=September 30, 2013|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=December 12, 1982|id={{ProQuest|294165702}} }} {{Better source needed|date=March 2022}} He instead became one of the film's producers, and Hal Ashby became the director. Columbia then forced Ashby to quit because of the threat of legal action that would ensue if his postproduction commitments on Lookin' to Get Out were not fulfilled.{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Nick|title=Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel|year=2011|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Kentucky|isbn=978-0813134635}} Hoffman, in an attempt to get the interest of Sydney Pollack to direct, asked Elaine May, who provided a few weeks of work that added the character played by Murray to go along with suggesting Garr for a key role. May, alongside other writers who lent suggestions (such as Barry Levinson), albeit uncredited.

{{cite web | url=https://eriklundegaard.com/item/she-has-a-name-it-s-elaine-not-tootsie-or-toots-or-sweetie-or-honey-or-doll-elaine-may | title=She Has a Name. It's Elaine. Not Tootsie or Toots or Sweetie or Hon }}{{cite web | url=https://www.flavorwire.com/496646/why-tootsie-is-one-of-the-finest-and-most-important-comedies-ever-made | title=Why 'Tootsie' is One of the Finest (And Most Important) Comedies Ever Made | date=2 January 2015 }} In November 1981, Sydney Pollack agreed to direct and produce the film at Columbia's suggestion.{{cite book|last=Dworkin|first=Susan|title=Making Tootsie: A Film Study with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack|year=2012|publisher=Newmarket Press|isbn=978-1557049667}}

Hoffman suggested that Pollack play Michael's agent George Fields, a role written for Dabney Coleman. Pollack resisted the idea, but Hoffman eventually convinced him; it was Pollack's first acting work in years."How Conflict Gave Shape to 'Tootsie'." New York Times. December 19, 1982. p. 1, 16. Pollack cast Coleman as the sexist, arrogant soap opera director Ron Carlisle.{{cite web |url=http://s.wsj.net/article/SB120191168810636715.html |title=Sketches of Sydney Pollack |work=The Wall Street Journal |first=Joe |last=Morgenstern |date=February 8, 2008 |access-date=February 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220020501/http://s.wsj.net/article/SB120191168810636715.html |archive-date=December 20, 2008}}

To prepare for his role, Hoffman watched the 1978 film La Cage aux Folles several times.{{Cite news

| last = Beck

| first = Marilyn

| title = Marilyn Beck's Hollywood: Producers Finding Financing Rough

| newspaper = The Victoria Advocate

| location = Victoria, Texas

| page = 11D

| date = 1980-04-03

| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2yMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6955,608630&dq=adam+and+yves+danny-arnold&hl=en

| access-date = 2010-09-02}} He also visited the set of General Hospital for research and conducted extensive makeup tests. Hoffman has stated that 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 regarded Tootsie as a comedy.{{Cite AV media

| title = Dustin Hoffman on TOOTSIE and his character Dorothy Michaels

| publisher = American Film Institute

| date = 2012-12-17

| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPAat-T1uhE

| access-date = 2022-02-10

| via = YouTube

}}

Scenes set at New York's Russian Tea Room were filmed in the actual restaurant, with additional scenes shot in Central Park and in front of Bloomingdale's. Scenes were also filmed in Hurley, New York and at the National Video Studios in New York.Maslin, Janet. "'Tootsie': A Woman Who Is Dustin Hoffman." New York Times. July 13, 1982. Additional filming took place in Fort Lee, New Jersey.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/24/nyregion/and-the-winner-is-new-jersey-as-a-location-for-top-films.html|title=And the Winner Is . . . New Jersey, as a Location for Top Films|first=Betsy|last=Anderson|work=The New York Times |date=24 March 1991|via=NYTimes.com}}

Tootsie opened in 943 theaters in the United States and Canada and grossed $5,540,470 during its opening weekend. After 115 days, it surpassed Close Encounters of the Third Kind as Columbia's greatest domestic hit of all time.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=April 13, 1983|page=3|title='Tootsie' Windfall}} Its final international gross in the United States and Canada was $177,200,000, making it the second-highest-grossing movie of 1982 after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold more than 56.9 million tickets in the U.S.{{cite web|access-date=May 31, 2016|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=tootsie.htm&adjust_yr=1&p=.htm|title=Tootsie (1982)|website=Box Office Mojo}}

The film grossed $63.8 million internationally{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|page=5|date=June 15, 1983|title='Tootsie,' 'Gandhi' Hit $120-Mil Abroad, Despite Hard Dollar Drag}} and was the highest-grossing film in Germany, with a gross of $19 million.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|page=28|date=October 11, 1999|title=Pollack: From 'Eyes' To 'Hearts'}} Worldwide, it grossed 241 million dollars.

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|91|7.8|53|consensus=Tootsie doesn't squander its high-concept comedy premise, with fine dialogue and sympathetic treatment of the characters|access-date=September 21, 2023|ref=y}} {{Metacritic film prose|88|21|ref=yes|access-date=September 21, 2023}}

Roger Ebert praised the film, awarding it four out of four stars and observing: "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 the Manhattan social pecking order."{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tootsie-1982 |title=Tootsie |work=Chicago Sun-Times |author=Roger Ebert | author-link = Roger Ebert |date=December 17, 1982 |access-date=2007-12-22 }}

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 Weekly Magazine. Tootsie was selected as the {{abbr|No.|Number}} 5 Best Comedy.{{Cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Best_Film/best-film-greatest-movies-time/story?id=13147020 |title=Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time |publisher=ABC News |date=March 16, 2011}}

National Film Registry — Inducted in 1998.{{Cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=February 27, 2020}}

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #62{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/movies100.pdf |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=July 16, 2016}}
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #2{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=July 16, 2016 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624052741/http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf |url-status=dead}}
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #69{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/100Movies.pdf |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=July 16, 2016}}

{{more citations needed|date=July 2018}}

The film was first released on CED Videodisc in 1983, on VHS and Betamax videocassettes by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1985 and on DVD in 2001. These releases were distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. The film was also released by the Criterion Collection in a LaserDisc edition in 1992. A special 25th-anniversary edition DVD was released by Sony Pictures in 2008.{{cite web |title=Tootsie - 25th Anniversary Edition |url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/32213/tootsie-25th-anniversary-edition/ |date=5 February 2008 |website=DVD Talk |access-date=19 July 2018}} The film was released on Blu-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.{{cite web |title=Tootsie (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] [2016] |website=Amazon UK |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tootsie-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray-Hoffman/dp/B01B2LTMEA |access-date=19 July 2018}}

{{Main|Tootsie (musical)}}

A stage musical of the film premiered at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago from September 11 to October 14, 2018, before opening on Broadway in the spring of 2019. The musical has music and lyrics by David Yazbek. Robert Horn wrote the book, Denis Jones choreographed and Scott Ellis directed. Santino Fontana starred as Michael Dorsey.McPhee, Ryan. [http://www.playbill.com/article/tootsie-musical-starring-santino-fontana-will-play-chicago-before-2019-broadway-premiere# " 'Tootsie' Musical, Starring Santino Fontana, Will Play Chicago Before 2019 Broadway Premiere"] Playbill, January 24, 2018 He was joined by Lilli Cooper as Julie Nichols, Sarah Stiles as Sandy Lester, John Behlmann as Max Van Horn, Andy Grotelueschen as Jeff Slater, Julie Halston as Rita Mallory, Tony Award winner Michael McGrath as Stan Fields and Tony nominee Reg Rogers as Ron Carlisle.

• Cross-dressing in film and television
• List of highest-grossing films in Canada and the United States

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb title}}
• {{Mojo title}}
• {{AFI film}}
• {{TCMDb title}}
• [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/tootsie.pdf Tootsie essay] by Brian Scott Mednick at National Film Registry
• Tootsie essay by Daniel Eagan in [https://books.google.com/books/about/America_s_Film_Legacy.html?id=deq3xI8OmCkC America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry], A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 780–781
• [http://livingromcom.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/romantic-comedy.html The 25th Anniversary Tootsie] by Billy Mernit
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3404-tootsie-one-great-dame Tootsie: One Great Dame] – an essay by Michael Sragow at The Criterion Collection

{{Sydney Pollack}}

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