Dustin Hoffman's Touching Thoughts About Tootsie

Thank you, Meghan.  Don't you love this guy?

Comments

[barbara]

wow............this really hit me, hoffman's honesty and depth (i am continually impressed and amazed at how much of themselves good actors put into their roles) and i, too, am teary. i realize i, a woman, have never thought about this myself.....what difference in my life if i had been more or less (!!!) appealing to others. how would i feel to MYSELF?
during years of being too big.............i did appreciate how much people thought less of me, how i would be ignored or overlooked if met randomly rather than when met with some background as to status or life or whatever. that was so humbling.
and now i am more close to normal weight, and most of that seems gone..............there is more acceptance just as i am.
but now i am old, and this is another whole world of pre-judgement.....'dear' is used, more sympathy to my foibles (kind of nice, for i have always had foibles),, but also a perceived expectation of MAKING.HAVING foibles in the first place, as if no way could i not have them 'at my age'. there seems a certain acceptance now that i am 'less than', of course......i'm old now, not vigorous enough in mind or body to be doing better. and i don't like this. i feel inwardly as i have always felt, the 'me' of me still in there observing and thinking and doing. my thoughts do not seem 'old' to ME. the body changes are subjects of jokes.............................but are still met with disgust and resistance...by me.
hoffman's challenge to think what it would be like to have been born different can be extended to how would it have been to have aged differently, i think, or have had different life challenges, etc. yet still the bottom line is how it all started as we were born and perceived a certain way.
how lonely for those society tends to consider 'less than'....in any degree. maybe even how lonely for those considered 'more than' with that attendant pressure.
quite a piece, lois..............thanks for posting it. this would be so advantageous for all to see......and try to absorb, as he did. and yes, i have always admired his work. this interview helps to explain why he is so good at it.
b