Where to watch Tootsie (1982)

Trivia & production notes

• The original source material was a 1970s play called "Would I Lie to You?" that circulated Hollywood for years before Buddy Hackett showed the script to producer Charles Evans in 1978.
• Dustin Hoffman demanded complete creative control of the film, which led producer Charles Evans to step away from screenwriting and become a producer instead.
• The film was retitled "Tootsie" at Hoffman's suggestion as a tribute to his mother, who would throw him in the air as a child and call him "Tootsie Wootsie."
• Director Dick Richards left the project over creative differences and was replaced by Hal Ashby, who was then forced to quit when Columbia feared legal issues over his post-production work on another film.
• Sydney Pollack was brought in to direct after Hoffman asked screenwriter Elaine May to work on the script, and Pollack agreed to the role partly because his deal included final cut and control over casting and the script.
• Elaine May added the character of Jeff Slater played by Bill Murray and developed the role of Sandy Lester for Teri Garr, yet received no screen credit despite being arguably the most significant of several writers who reworked the script.
• Hoffman watched the 1978 film "La Cage aux Folles" multiple times and visited the set of "General Hospital" to prepare for his role, plus underwent extensive makeup tests.
• Voice and body language expert Lillian Glass taught Hoffman how to speak and move like a woman for the role.
• After 115 days in release, Tootsie surpassed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to become Columbia's greatest domestic hit of all time at that point.
• A stage musical adaptation premiered in Chicago in 2018 before opening on Broadway in 2019, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and Santino Fontana starring as the lead character.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Tootsie, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.