The character of Dorothy originally did not speak with a Southern accent, but in doing research, Dustin Hoffman discovered his voice fell more closely into the range of female pitch while doing the accent.
Dorothy Michaels (Dustin Hoffman) tells April (Geena Davis) that she thinks of all the younger actresses as her daughters, and "What kind of mother would I be if I didn't give my girls...tips?" In a 2014 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Geena Davis recalled that since this was her first movie and she was very young and inexperienced (she didn't even know that she didn't have to come to the set on days when she wasn't shooting any scenes), Dustin Hoffman similarly acted as a mentor to Davis. One piece of advice he gave her was: "I know you're going to move to Hollywood and be successful, and your co-stars are going to hit on you, and you should not sleep with your co-stars. It's a bad idea. So here's what to say. When they hit on you, say, 'I would love to', be very flattering, 'but I'm afraid it would ruin the (on-screen) sexual tension between us.'" Davis said that she later used that tactic when Jack Nicholson hit on her, and Nicholson's response was, "Oh my god, where'd you get THAT? What a line. Oh, man!"
The crew would only give bad news to Dustin Hoffman if he was in drag. They said he was "much nicer as a woman".
Dustin Hoffman tried out his role as Dorothy by passing himself off as his daughter's Aunt Dorothy at her parents' evening at school. His performance was so strong he actually convinced the teachers. They never suspected.
Bernie Pollack: The film's costume supervisor and brother of actor and Director Sydney Pollack as Actor #1. This was the second of three times that he appeared in one of his brother's movies; the first was Bobby Deerfield (1977) and the third one was Havana (1990).