During a recent panel at Comic-Con, Alex Borstein of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Family Guy said her industry pet peeve was the “wild obsession and focus on youth and beauty,” calling it “so boring.” Preach! It’s not a new thought, but I like her addition of the “boring” part because that’s always been my thing. I have a pact with myself that I don’t write about women’s bodies or appearance not because I find it offensive or unfeminist or whatever else, but because it isn’t interesting. I’d rather talk about, like, rare species of bugs.
Then she recalled a funny interaction with Tootsie actor Dustin Hoffman, who portrayed an actor reinventing himself as an actress in the film.
“The movie Tootsie, anybody heard of it?” she asked the crowd. “I once ran into Dustin Hoffman and I said to him, ‘God, I’m such a fan. I love you. You showed me that I can still be an ugly woman and get on a movie.’” She said Hoffman “laughed at first,” but then his tone changed.
“He said, ‘Don’t you do that! Stop that! Don’t you do that! You are not ugly! You are beautiful! You are different! You are packaged differently!’ And he lost his shit. But it was really a moment … and lo and behold, and I’m still here,” she said.
It’s like the better version of that line from The Help: “You is smart, you is kind, you is important.” How do I get Dustin Hoffman to follow me around and shout, “You are beautiful! You are different! You are packaged differently!” in my face whenever I do something stupid or feel bad about myself? I really think it might solve all of my problems.