Teri Garr makes anxious women funny without dismissing their troubles. Her precise timing gives Tootsie one of its richest performances, though the film could afford to pay her as much attention as it pays its leading man.
Fi1m perspective
In Tootsie (1982), Teri Garr's Sandy Lester keeps demanding our attention, even with Dustin Hoffman at the centre of the farce. Garr gives her anxiety an exact comic timing without reducing Sandy to a collection of nervous habits. We laughed, then felt protective of her, because the embarrassment in the performance remained recognisable. This is Garr at her most rewarding: funny enough to compete with the lead, and interesting enough to deserve more room.
Her breakthrough came with two supporting parts in 1974: Inga in Young Frankenstein and Amy Fredericks in The Conversation. Broad comedy and straight drama were both part of her work from that point. Ronnie Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) continued the dramatic work, while Julie in After Hours (1985) belonged to black comedy. The recurring limitation was the casting: anxious, daffy or long-suffering women, usually supporting somebody else's story.
Sydney Pollack gives her a useful setting in Tootsie: an ensemble whose actors do not all work at the same speed. Jessica Lange gives Julie Nichols feelings that matter, while Bill Murray makes Jeff Slater a quieter comic presence. Garr's anxious precision adds something different again, so the film need not keep looking to Hoffman for its next laugh. These actors make the improbable story easier to accept because their irritation and embarrassment are familiar.
The reservation is with what the film asks these women to do. Tootsie gives its leading man too much authority to explain their experience, even as it makes fun of his vanity. Garr and Lange create characters who could complicate those lessons, and the script too often declines the opportunity. Sandy's insecurity is worth exploring beyond what it can teach Michael.
Later work included Helen Swanson in Dumb and Dumber (1994), a comedy whose chief pleasure is the double act of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. We enjoy that film's indifference to good taste, though its jokes repeat themselves; it is not where we would start with Garr. Start with Tootsie, and leave time afterwards to discuss Sandy rather than just the man in disguise.
Biography
Teri Garr was an American actress and dancer. She appeared in over 140 film and television credits across four decades, often in comedic roles.
Born in Lakewood, Ohio, on 11 December 1944, she trained in ballet and other dance forms. She began her career with small roles in the early 1960s, including as a dancer in several Elvis Presley musicals, and later studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.
Garr had supporting roles in The Conversation (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974). She received an Academy Award nomination for Tootsie (1982) and appeared as Helen Swanson in Dumb and Dumber (1994). She also had a recurring role in Friends. Garr died on 29 October 2024.
