Dude Acts Like a Lady

I have to admit that, for the most part, I can take or leave Dustin Hoffman. He just seems incredibly odd to me (something that’s been confirmed by the people I know who’ve met him), which is probably why he’s such a versatile actor. Strange – dare I say, slightly unbalanced – people always seem to make the best actors.

Despite my apathy towards the little guy, however, I will say that I enjoyed his film Tootsie and have even recently added it to my film collection. I always found his Dorothy character to be quite likeable and not bad-looking for what she was: a middle-aged, grandmother type. According to a recently-resurrected AFI interview, however, Hoffman would disagree with this assertion.

Apparently upon seeing himself in drag for the first time, Hoffman was displeased with the image that greeted him – not because he didn’t look like a woman, but because he didn’t look like a pretty woman. And he told the makeup artist as much. I imagine it went something like this, “Make me pretty, you fool!” But the makeup artist responded with the words that every woman fears: This is the best we can do; this is as pretty as you get.

 

 Dustin Hoffman in character and out. I'll let you decide which is which.  

The reality is, Dustin Hoffman is not a pretty woman. (He’s also not a pretty man, but that’s a story for another day.) And it upset him, but not for the reasons that you may suspect. Sure, it probably hurt his ego a bit – none of us wants to hear that we’re not pretty – but more importantly it caused him to do a little soul searching.

And just like with his image in the mirror, he didn’t like what he saw.

He realized that, for all the amazing qualities that (s)he possessed, Dustin the man never would’ve approached Dustin the woman (aka Dorothy) because she wasn’t aesthetically pleasing enough. And applying this same thought process to other women, he wondered how many worthwhile people he had missed out on meeting, simply because he overlooked them.

I could continue to try paraphrasing the Hoffmeister’s thoughts and feelings, but why don’t I just let him tell you in his own words? He says it better than I ever could.