Michael Dorsey would not kill off Toostie!

Dustin Hoffman has been seen recently in a video recorded by the American Film Institute that was posted on YouTube speaking about creating his character Dorothy Michaels for the movie Tootsie. I was so moved seeing him choking back the tears talking about being her; I was prompted to replay the movie for the first time since its open back in 1982 and was surprised at all I missed back then. This is probably due to having purged my girl stuff for the millionth time to be with another woman.

Dustin said in the short video he wanted the studio makeup team to make him look so much like a woman nobody could out him on the street. When seeing the film tests he said okay, yes she is totally passable but he was shocked that she was not prettier. “If I am going to be a woman I want to be beautiful.” The makeup artists replied “Sorry this is as good as it gets.”

Dustin went home and cried, for the character of Dorothy was that of real woman and she had done the very best she could to be attractive.  He realized that he had been dismissive to so many women in his own life over the years because they did not look a certain way. How well we know of these circumstances as CDs and TGs and even TSs. We all want to be totally passable and totally gorgeous. Reality sets in on so many of us and we go for all kinds of dangerous surgeries to even remotely resemble the picture of ourselves we have on the inside. What has society writ upon us that makes us go to such lengths to just be ourselves? Well back to our story.

You may recall the movie is about a character actor Michael Dorsey who has such a bad reputation as a pain in the ass nobody will hire him for any roles. When trying to help a girlfriend to create a character for a hospital soap, he inadvertently comes up with the persona for Dorothy Michaels. Then when his friend does not get the role Michael auditions dressed and in the persona of a woman — and gets the part.

Julie and Dorothy

Throughout the movie Michael was far too into how his female persona would look, dress and feel, well beyond what an actor does to create a character. She became a real person to him, someone who was an extension of him/herself. The rub of it was he falls in love with and becomes the best friend of another woman on the show but can’t reveal his guy identity. The love interest, Julie Nichols, (Jessica Lange’s character) falls in love with Dorothy too but can’t get by her sexual preference for men so rejects the friendship as too painful thinking Dorothy is a lesbian.

When all is revealed in the end it is more than just implied that as a couple Michael and Julie would likely have a third person in their relationship that they both love. Dorothy Michaels — even if she only existed behind the closed doors of their home, they could not kill her off. There would be no need to call out Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple to solve a case of murder most foul.

I like to think as the years ticked by into the 21st century that Dorothy could now have a life out in public with her girl Julie not embarrassed to walk arm in arm, kiss or embrace.

Here is Dustin Hoffman’s interview with AFI.

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Tags: Dorothy Michaels, Dustin Hoffman, featured, Identity, opinion, passing, Tootsie

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion