Michael Dorsey is a respected actor, but nobody in New York City wants to hire him because he is a perfectionist and difficult to work with. He makes ends meet by working as a server in a restaurant and teaching acting classes. After many months without an acting job, Michael hears of an opening on the popular daytime soap opera Southwest General from his friend and acting student Sandy Lester, who tries out unsuccessfully for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. In desperation, and following an argument with his agent, Michael impersonates a woman, auditioning as “Dorothy Michaels”, and gets the hospital administrator part. Michael takes the job as a way to raise $8,000 to produce a play by his roommate Jeff Slater, which will star himself and Sandy. As “Dorothy”, Michael plays Emily Kimberly as a feisty feminist, which surprises the other actors and the crew, who expected her to be (as written) another swooning female. His character quickly becomes a national sensation.Tootsie 1982 Movie Download.
When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed because he wants to try on her clothes for ideas for Dorothy’s wardrobe, he covers up by claiming he wants to have sex with her. Sandy is receptive and they sleep together.
Exacerbating matters further, he is attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols, a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show’s amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle. At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a pick-up line to which she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive, she throws a drink in his face. Later, as Dorothy, when he makes tentative advances, Julie—having just ended her relationship with Ron per Dorothy’s advice—makes it known that she is not a lesbian.Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn and Julie’s widowed father, Les. Les proposes marriage, insisting that Dorothy think about it before answering.