Great Scene: “Tootsie”

Great scenes are, first and foremost, entertaining, but a really great scene can accomplish so much more. In the movie Tootsie (screenplay by Murray Schisgal and Larry Gelbart, story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart), you have to absolutely believe that Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) has no other resort than to take on the persona of Dorothy Michaels — or else you don’t have a movie. This scene locks down that critical point. Track all the doors that Michael’s agent George Grey (Sydney Pollack) closes, limiting Michael’s choices until he has only one.

Here are the doors that close on Michael:

• People want name actors; he’s not a name.
• George is not going to produce Jeff’s play.
• Besides nobody wants to see Jeff’s “downer” play.
• No one wants to work with Michael because he’s impossible to work with.
• Michael has a horrible reputation, nobody will hire him.
• Not just New York, but Hollywood as well.
• There’s nothing George can do for Michael

George also reminds Michael that he hasn’t worked for two years, so we can infer that Michael is low on cash. Michael’s declaration that he’s going to raise $8,000 to put on Jeff’s play forces the issue: Now Michael has his pride on the line. And because all the doors are closed and he’s got to raise that $8,000, he’s got to do something.

Fortunately, George also tosses Michael a bone, if unknowingly: Terry Bishop, who is in Michael’s eyes a lesser actor than Michael, works on a “soap.” So if no one will work with Michael, that means he has to change his appearance to get work. And if Terry Bishop can get a gig on a “soap,” then Michael figures he can, too.

Cue the shot: Michael dressed as a woman en route to an audition on a soap opera.

The beauty of this scene is not only that is rife with conflict, the sparks flying between these two combustible characters; not only that it’s got one great line after another; it’s that all of it is essentially exposition! We have talked about how “Exposition = Death.” Here the screenwriters have constructed a scene that makes the problem the solution: Embrace the exposition by having it slung back and forth by two characters yelling at each other. The fact that all of it leads Michael from his beginning state of belligerence to his ending state of inspiration (he’ll try his lot as Dorothy Michaels) is what elevates the interaction into a Great Scene.

Here’s the scene in the movie:

For more articles in the Great Scene series, go here.

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