Dustin Hoffman Calls Making 'The Graduate' a Terrible Experience in New Yorker Essay

Dustin Hoffman has described making the 1967 film The Graduate as a terrible experience in an essay for The New Yorker, published over the weekend and drawn from his upcoming memoir Look at Me, which he co-wrote with staff writer Ariel Levy. The 89-year-old actor says director Mike Nichols was demanding on set, including a slap scene that required 27 takes, after which Hoffman was dizzy, though Nichols did not use the slap in the film. Hoffman also wrote that he felt uncomfortable and unworthy as a Jewish actor cast as the Wasp Ben Braddock, and that Nichols had makeup artists change his appearance, including his monobrow and nose. Nichols had spent two years casting the leads, considering Robert Redford before hiring Hoffman.

The left-leaning Guardian US leads with Hoffman's terrible-experience claim and puts Nichols's 'sadism' in its headline, featuring the 27-take slap, the makeup instructions and Hoffman's sense of being an outsider. Its focus is on identity and insecurity, with the memoir and co-writer noted. The alternative A.V. Club largely matches the left on the slap and the strained relationship with Nichols, but adds a punctured eardrum from a wetsuit scene, near-loss of consciousness while filming the church run, and praise for the film. The right-leaning Washington Times has only a short headline and excerpt available, reporting just the terrible-experience description, so it does not include the slap, the sadism claim or the identity material. Left and alternative sources both emphasize Nichols's treatment of Hoffman, while the right source's text is too brief to show its emphasis.