Dustin Hoffman has been accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old intern in 1985. Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleges in an essay published by The Hollywood Reporter that the actor groped her and made inappropriate sexual remarks on the set of 1985 TV movie Death of a Salesman.
Hunter writes that Hoffman asked her to give him a foot massage during her first day on set, which she did. "He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me," she continues. "One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, 'I'll have a hard-boiled egg … and a soft-boiled clitoris.' His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless. Then I went to the bathroom and cried."
At the time, Hunter detailed the alleged encounters with Hoffman in a series of diary entries which she mailed to her sister. "Today, I realised some things about this business that scare me. First of all, Dustin's a lech. I'm completely disillusioned. After Tootsie, I thought I wanted to marry him," she wrote in one entry. In another, she wrote: "Today, when I was walking Dustin to his limo, he felt my ass four times. I hit him each time, hard, and told him he was a dirty old man."
Hunter stated that when she raised Hoffman's behaviour to her supervisor, she was told to "sacrifice some of [her] values" for the sake of the production, and suggested that Hunter try to have a sense of humour and "just giggle and slap his hands or something. But that's when I feel the cheapest, like, 'Oh, she really likes it.'"
In retrospect, Hunter wrote that she understands Hoffman's behaviour as part of a larger pattern in Hollywood. "He was a predator, I was a child, and this was sexual harassment. As to how it fits into my own pattern, I imagine I'll be figuring that out for years to come."
Hoffman responded to THR's article with the following apology: "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
