Most actors would say that their job consists largely of learning to walk around in another person's shoes. In the 1982 film Tootsie, however, Dustin Hoffman did that quite literally, learning to walk in heels and gaining a new appreciation for what it meant to be a woman. He scored one of his biggest hits playing an unemployable actor who achieves stardom when he becomes a leading lady on a daytime soap. The film was an almost instant classic and remains one of the top-grossing comedies of all time. What many people don’t know is that actress Elaine May didn’t appear in the film, but helped make it a success. She was paid $450,000 for three weeks work revising the screenplay, adding a woman’s perspective to the story. She could have earned a screenwriting credit, but she declined it. Her philosophy was “come in, do the work, take the money, and leave no tracks.”
