Tootsie (1982)

What do you get when you cross a hopelessly straight starving actor with a dynamite red sequined dress? You get America's hottest new actress.

When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego—Dorothy Michaels—in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle.

Directed by: Sydney Pollack

Written by: Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, Elaine May

Music by: Dave Grusin

Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Bill Murray, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, Geena Davis, Doris Belack

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Released: 1982-12-17

Runtime: 116 minutes

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Tootsie (1982): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• Tootsie was partly inspired by a play McGuire wrote in the early 1970s, and was first made into a screenplay in 1979 by Dick Richards, Bob Kaufman, and Robert Evans.
• Delays in the film's production forced Evans to renew the option, but in 1979, he co-wrote a screenplay based on the play with director Dick Richards and screenwriter Bob Kaufman.
• The film 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.
• In the early 1970s, Don McGuire's Would 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 actor Buddy Hackett in 1978.
• The film grossed $63.8 million internationally and was the highest-grossing film in Germany, with a gross of $19 million.
• Richards, who was selected as director, introduced the project to Hoffman, who obtained complete creative 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.
• Initially, George Hamilton was to play the lead and serve as an executive producer.
• 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.
• In 2006, Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay 17th on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.

Source: Wikipedia

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