Dustin Hoffman on What Tootsie Taught Him About Beauty. Video

Tootsie, Sydney Pollack’s 1982 hit movie about an actor who dresses as a woman in order to score more gigs, has long been considered a comedy. But for its leading lady, Dustin Hoffman, the movie was a revelation about female beauty — and how men routinely ignore women they don’t find attractive, Time reported.

Upworthy recently dug up a 2012 American Film Institute interview with the revered actor, who recounted how the film came to be created. Hoffman says he agreed only to make the movie if he could pass as a woman. After he saw himself onscreen in full makeup, Hoffman realized his female counterpart was less than attractive. In the interview, Hoffman becomes emotional discussing his character’s impact:

''Talking to my wife, I said I have to make this picture, and she said, “Why?” And I said, “Because I think I am an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen. And I know that if I met myself at a party, I would never talk to that character because she doesn’t fulfill physically the demands that we’re brought up to think women have to have in order to ask them out.” She says, “What are you saying?” And I said, “There’s too many interesting women I have…not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed'',- Hoffman told.