"Tootsie" was one of the most successful movie comedies of the 1980s, but it left a serious impact on its leading man, who dressed as a woman for the role. Dustin Hoffman has revealed he was not only a bad-looking woman, but that he also realized one of our culture's greatest flaws while making the iconic film.

In a video interview with the American Film Institute that has gone viral, Hoffman discusses his "Tootsie" role, in which he played Michael Dorsey, a strong-willed but out-of-work actor who lands a role on a soap opera by posing as character actress Dorothy Michaels.

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In the interview, Hoffman says that to prepare for the film, a team of makeup artists turned Dustin into Dorothy to see if he could look plausible as a woman on screen. With the right makeup and costume, Hoffman could pull off the ruse, but he was disappointed that he wasn't more attractive. When Hoffman asked his team to make him more beautiful, he was told, "That's as beautiful as we can get you, Charlie."

Hoffman goes on to say that his reactions let him to an "epiphany" about how women are judged for their appearance, and he admits, "There's too many interesting women I have not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed."

While the clip from Hoffman's AFI interview was posted in December 2012, bloggers only recently discovered the video, and this week, the video racked up over 2,800,000 views.

Watching it, it's not hard to see why people have become fascinated with it — Hoffman becomes very emotional as he discusses how the process of preparing for "Tootsie" changed him, and why he felt driven to make the movie.



Watch Dustin Hoffman Discuss 'Tootsie,' Gets Emotional at 2:35-In:

