Tootsie is a 1982 American satirical romantic comedy film directed by Sydney Pollack from a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal and a story by Gelbart and Don McGuire. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, and Charles Durning. In the film, Michael Dorsey (Hoffman), a talented actor with a reputation for being professionally difficult, runs into romantic trouble after adopting a female persona to land a job.

Tootsie was partly inspired from a play written by McGuire in the early 1970s, and was first made into screenplay by Dick Richards, Bob Kaufman, and Robert Evans, in 1979. Richards, who was selected as director, introduced the project to Hoffman, who obtained complete creative control after signing on: revisions to the screenplay and from Richards and his successor, Hal Ashby, being replaced by Pollack caused delays to production, which eventually began in November 1981. Principal photography took place across New York and in New Jersey, with filming locations including Manhattan, Hurley, and Fort Lee. The film's theme song, "It Might Be You", performed by Stephen Bishop, peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Tootsie was theatrically released in the United States on December 17, 1982, by Columbia Pictures. The film grossed $241 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest grossing film of 1982, and received critical acclaim for its humor, Hoffman and Lange's performances, dialogue, and social commentary. It was nominated for ten awards at the 55th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Supporting Actress for Lange. In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

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 unsuccessfully auditions for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly. In desperation, and following an argument with his agent, Michael disguises himself as a woman named "Dorothy Michaels" and auditions for Southwest General himself, and he is cast as Emily Kimberly. 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 plausible feminist, which surprises the other actors and the crew, who expected "Dorothy" to give a mild-mannered performance, in contrast to the empowered "Gloria Steinem type" suggested in the script. His character quickly becomes a national sensation.

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, Michael is attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols, a single mother with a daughter from a previous relationship and 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.