Dustin Hoffman nearly cries explaining the epiphany that made ‘Tootsie’ so meaningful to him

Everyone has their reasons for making movies. Those reasons are different on a case-by-case basis and run the spectrum from superficial to profound, but you kind of live for this level of insight into a project and dedication to a deep, complex idea that really needs a medium like the cinema to fully explore it.

As far as I can tell, a Tumblr page called Batman Is Still Better Than Spider-Man deserves the credit for digging up an AFI archival video clip of Dustin Hoffman detailing a very personal epiphany. It was posted to YouTube in December. In it, Hoffman explains what the 1982 film “Tootsie” meant to him and why it was “never a comedy” for him.

Misogyny is very much a part of our dialogue these days, in politics, in stand-up comedy, certainly in the arts. But it rarely takes on such a meaningful shade as I see in this video, so while it has deservedly made the rounds plenty as of late, I felt the desire to share it here, too.

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