WATCH: Dustin Hoffman reveals Tootsie taught him he was 'brainwashed' about female beauty
LEGENDARY actor Dustin Hoffman revealed his role in hit 1982 movie Tootsie taught him he was 'brainwashed' about ideas of female beauty in a YouTube video that has gone viral.
The Oscar winning star, 75, opened up about his role in the Sydney Pollack film about a struggling actor who dresses as a woman to land a role in a soap opera.
Hoffman said he would only agree to the role if make-up artists could make him believably look like a woman in an interview with the American Film Institute (AFI).
After he saw himself in full makeup he asked if he could be made to look more attractive and said he had an epiphany when he was told that was as good as he could look.
A clearly emotional Hoffman struggles for words and appears to be holding back tears as he recounts the story.
Hoffman said: "I went home and started crying talking to my wife. I said I have to make this picture, and she asked why?
"I think I'm an interesting woman when I look at myself on screen but if I met myself at a party I would never talk to that character because she does not fulfill physically the demands that we are brought up to think women have to have in order for us to ask them out."
He adds: "And she says 'What are you saying?' And I said there are too many interesting women I have not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainswashed. That was never a comedy for me."
The video, which was posted on YouTube last December, was recently unearthed by website Upworthy.
The clip has gone viral, being posted across the Facebook and Twitter spheres, and has been viewed almost three million times.