10 Hugh Laurie Quotes From House That Makes More Sense Than Our Whole Lives

Dustin Hoffman Breaks Down Over Tootsie Role, Video Goes Viral: "It Was Never a Comedy For Me"

Dustin Hoffman's 1982 comedy Tootsie was no laughing matter for the veteran Hollywood actor. The 75-year-old actor opened up about cross-dressing as a woman for his lead role in the film during a 2012 interview that went viral this week, and in a moving clip, he fights back tears as he remembers the experience.

During the interview, Hoffman explains that Tootsie co-writer Murray Schisgal once asked him, "How would you be different if you had been born a woman?"

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"Not, 'What does it feel like to be a woman, because all sexes have asked the question of what it would feel like to be the opposite sex,'" Hoffman clarifies. "But his question was different. If you were born a woman, how would you be different?"

The actor goes on to explain that in considering the role, he asked the studio to provide him with several make-up tests so that he could see whether or not he would be able to get into character and stroll through the streets of New York as a woman -- not a cross-dressing man, but as a woman.

The first time Hoffman saw himself in the mirror in full makeup as his character Dorothy Michaels, he says, he was surprised.

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"I was shocked that I wasn't more attractive," he admits. "I said, 'Now you have me looking like a woman, now make me beautiful.' I thought I should be beautiful if I was going to be a woman. I would want to be as beautiful as possible."

When the makeup team assured him that there was nothing else they could do to make him more "beautiful," Hoffman says he had an "epiphany" that shook him.

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"It was at that moment I had an epiphany, and I went home and started crying," he says in the AFI interview, fighting back tears as he recounts his realization. "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.'"

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"She says, 'What are you saying?'" he continues. "And I said, 'There's too many interesting woman I have … not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed.'"

By the end of the clip, Hoffman's eyes are misted over as he remembers truly understanding the meaning of female beauty.

"That [Tootsie] was never a comedy for me," he concludes.

New Line Picks Up Action Comedy Spec 'The Lost' (Exclusive)

Shawn Levy, who is producing "The Lost"
New Line has picked up The Lost, an action comedy spec from popping scribe T.J. Fixman that has Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps banner attached to produce.

The story focuses on reformed first-time offenders who must clear their name after they are framed for the murder of their parole officer.

Levy will produce with the shingle’s Billy Rosenberg and Dan Cohen.

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Levy, who just wrapped directing the Jason Batemen-led ensemble drama This Is Where I Leave You, is in pre-production on Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Disney’s adaptation of the popular 1970s children’s book. The company is also prepping for the August 2 release of the Sundance hit Spectacular Now which stars Shailene Woodley.

Fixman hails originally from the video game world and is clearly on an upward trajectory. The Lost marks his second studio sale this year; in March, Universal picked up One Night On the Hudson, a spec that has Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis attached to star. He was also hired to rewrite Gargoyles for Disney.

Fixman is repped by WME and Fourth Floor Management.

'The World's End' Premiere: Cast Celebrates Boozy Pub Crawl Comedy in London

LONDON -- Less stagger and more swagger was the order of the evening as Simon Pegg and fellow cast members Nick Frost and Rosamund Pike strolled among the fanboys and tourist gawkers for the world premiere of Edgar Wright's The World's End.

Pike, a former Bond girl, turned up in a shin length white dress designed by Victoria Beckham. She said working on the film was like discovering she had three clever older brothers.

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The Universal Pictures-backed Working Title and Big Talk production marked its global debut in the famous British capital landmark theater the Empire Leicester Square on July 10.

The crowds were to be expected for the movie that reunites Wright with actors Pegg and Frost, as they enjoy cult status, following the trio's successes with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

The trio have teamed up for another round of boozing, buddying and B-movie parodying, as described in THR's review, in what has been presented by the trio as the third movie in co-screenwriters Wright and Pegg's cheekily titled "three flavours cornetto" trilogy, named after the ice cream cone that makes cameos in each movie. Premiere attendees were handed a mint cornetto on arrival at the theater.

Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes), who join the Wright, Pegg and Frost gang onscreen for the first time, also enjoyed the premiere.

There was a ripple of disappointment that Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), the other newcomer to the gang, couldn't join the outing because of other commitments.

Sporting a powder blue suit with black trim, Pegg said the movie has "little bits of all of us" in the characters.

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He also hinted that the trio of Wright, Frost and himself will make another film together, but "without the cornetto."

Big Talk chief and producer Nira Park thanked working title for allowing her to make the trio of films "without interference, particularly Working Title co-chairman Eric Fellner."

She gave a shout out to Universal and Focus before bringing Wright to the stage.

Wright introduced co-conspirators Pegg and Frost along with Pike and Marsan to the stage inside the cinema ahead of the screening.

Wright told the audience that if anyone "tweeted about the surprises" ahead of its wide release "he would kill" them.

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The movie is released by Universal in the U.K. on July 19, a month ahead of its U.S. bow via Focus.

It stars Pegg as an immature 40-something who drags four friends on a 12-pint drinking marathon in the small English town of Newton Haven where they grew up.

After assembling for the outing, the evening takes a turn for sci-fi as they find themselves fighting off an alien invasion amidst the drinking games and final pub goal.

Wright said from the blue carpet earlier that the whole premise of the movie was based on a pub crawl he and his friends from his home town in Somerset had "failed miserably at the age of 19" to complete.

Select premiere-goers were invited on a one-bar only hop of their own to the swanky West End club and eaterie DSTRKT for a party scheduled to run late into the night.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Screen Media Picks Up Todd Sklar Comedy 'Awfully Nice'

Screen Media Films has acquired the U.S. rights to Todd Sklar’s comedy Awfully Nice, which had its world premiere at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. The distributor will release the film next spring in conjunction with a VOD release, preceded by a nationwide college tour of event screenings and interactive parties via Sklar's Range Life outfit, Screen Media president Suzanne Blech announced Tuesday.

The film centers on estranged brothers, played by James Pumphrey and Alex Rennie (who also cowrote the film), who are forced to travel to Branson together to renovate and flip the lake house they've inherited from their just-deceased father.

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It was written, directed and produced by Sklar, executive produced by Jason Krigsfeld and Joseph Krigsfeld of Brothers K Productions, and also produced by Michael Forstein, Adam Paulsen, Sklar, Maury Steinman and Brock Williams. It also stars Christopher Meloni, Brett Gelman and Keely Hazell and is based on Sklar’s award-winning short film ’92 Skybox Alonso Mourning Rookie Card, which also starred Rennie and Pumphrey. All three are repped by CAA and Principato Young.

The deal was negotiated by Blech and Seth Needle, manager of acquisitions and marketing, on behalf of Screen Media with CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.

'Thanks for Sharing' Trailer: Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo Star in Sex Addiction Comedy

Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo star as new couple with relationship problems in the comedy Thanks for Sharing.

Ruffalo stars as Adam, a consultant who spends five years in sex addiction therapy before dating Phoebe (Paltrow), who appears initially perplexed when told about the therapy.

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Tim Robbins plays Adam's sponsor, and 1600 Penn's Josh Gad portrays a medic who also is in therapy, where he begins a friendship with Dede (Pink). The film is directed by Stuart Blumberg, who co-wrote 2010's The Kids Are Alright.

The film debuted in 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"Showing an even-handed mix of dramatic episodes with light moments, [Stuart] Blumberg and [Matt] Winston’s script mostly treats sex addiction not as joke fodder but as a serious condition," The Hollywood Reporter's reviewer David Rooney wrote at the time.

Thanks for Sharing, which will be released by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, hits theaters Sept. 20.

Twitter: @sajilpl