Dustin Hoffman Recalls Physical Toll of Filming The Graduate
Dustin Hoffman revealed that making the 1967 film that launched his career was a terrible experience marked by physical injury and intense insecurity, according to an essay published in The New Yorker. The actor, writing in an extract from his forthcoming memoir Look at Me co-written with journalist Ariel Levy, described feeling immediately uncomfortable and unworthy while playing Benjamin Braddock, a role he felt he was completely wrong to cast as an ethnic actor portraying the ultimate Wasp. The book is scheduled for publication on November 10.
Much of Hoffman’s onset anxiety stemmed from director Mike Nichols, whom the actor said became frequently sour and difficult after an initially positive rehearsal period. Hoffman felt the director was angry at him for being miscast, stating that a certain sadism seemed to creep into Nichols’ treatment of him. The production difficulties culminated during the filming of a scene where Katharine Ross’s character Elaine discovers Benjamin’s affair with her mother. Nichols ordered 27 takes of a sequence requiring Ross to slap Hoffman, instructing her to strike harder despite her concerns about causing injury.
Hoffman asked his co-star not to hit his ear, but she accidentally did so during the repeated takes, leaving him dizzy by the end of the day. The slap sequence was not used in the final film. The following day, while wearing a scuba suit for an underwater swimming pool sequence, Hoffman noticed blood trickling from his ear and subsequently discovered he had punctured an eardrum due to the combined pressure and the previous day’s blows. The production also featured other physical hazards, including Anne Bancroft fainting from extreme heat on set and requiring oxygen.
Memoir Publication Scheduled for November
Despite the onset difficulties, the 1967 film became Hoffman’s breakthrough and earned seven Academy Award nominations, with Mike Nichols winning Best Director. Hoffman later won two Best Actor Oscars for Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man. The memoir Look at Me will be published on November 10.
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