In the post-Weinstein era, more and more women have felt emboldened to come forward with their own stories of sexual misconduct.
Last week, Anna Graham Hunter alleged in a Hollywood Reporter guest column that Dustin Hoffman sexually harassed her on the set of Death of a Salesman when she was only 17.
She opened the op-ed:
When I was a senior in high school in New York City, interning as a production assistant on the set of the Death of a Salesman TV film, he asked me to give him a foot massage my first day on set; I did. He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. 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.
Hoffman responded the the allegations, saying, '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.'
Jezebel has since unearthed footage of Hoffman explaining how he pinched a co-stars bottom to help her loosen up:
I remember at one point, I pinched very gently Katharine's right—probably her right buttocks as a way to help loosen us up. And I kind of patted her and gave her a little [pinch] and she turned on me and later we became friends, but at that moment, she just whirled on me and said, [Hoffman adopts rough, angry voice] 'Don't you ever do that to me again.' And suddenly everybody kind of heard it, the crew and wherever, and I just sat there and they didn't know what was going on. She said, 'How dare you?!' I said, 'Sorry, sorry—[Hoffman laughs]—I was just trying to get us relaxed.'
Similarly, Slate unearthed a 1979 Time magazine interview of Meryl Streep meeting Hoffman for the first time.
Slate wrote of the interview:
Meryl Streep described auditioning for a play Hoffman had directed several years earlier. It was apparently the first time they had met. 'He came up to me and said, 'I'm Dustin—burp—Hoffman,' and he put his hand on my breast,' Streep said. 'What an obnoxious pig, I thought.'
Hoffman doesn't appear to have responded publicly to this claim from Streep in the years since the interview, but these statements got picked up and spread across Twitter, with some people taking this as 'warning' from Streep.
However, the Oscar-winner has since clarified those comments, suggesting they are misleading and that the pair have reconciled.
She released a statement to Entertainment Tonight saying that the Time magazine synopsis was not an, 'accurate rendering of that meeting.'
The statement said: 'There was an offence and it is something for which Dustin apologised, and Meryl accepted that.'
There have also been rumours for a while that Hoffman slapped her in the face 'leaving a red mark' on the set of their Oscar-winning film Kramer vs Kramer, however, it sounds as though the pair have settled any differences they may have had.
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
