Dustin Hoffman accused of sexual harassment against teenager in 1985

Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleged that actor Dustin Hoffman, now 80, groped her on the set of TV movie ‘Death of a Salesman’ and spoke inappropriately about sex with her, in 1985.

 “He asked me to give him a foot massage my first day on set; I did,” Hunter wrote in the Hollywood Reporter.

“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.”

Hunter detailed Hoffman’s alleged treatment of her over her five weeks on set in a diary, which she mailed to her sister at the time.

 “Today, when I was walking Dustin to his limo, he felt my ass four times,” she wrote. “I hit him each time, hard, and told him he was a dirty old man.”

Dustin Hoffman in 'Death of a Salesman' (Photo: Top250)

She claims that on set, she was told to put up with his behavior by a supervisor who told her to “sacrifice” some of her values for the sake of the production.

“At 49, I understand what Dustin Hoffman did as it fits into the larger pattern of what women experience in Hollywood and everywhere,” she wrote, looking back. “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 the article with an 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.”

This is not Hoffman’s first brush with news such as this.

On the set of Kramer vs Kramer, he allegedly slapped Meryl Streep to improve her performance in a dramatic scene while also taunting her about the death of her boyfriend.

“I was getting divorced, I’d been partying with drugs and it depleted me in every way,” Hoffman said of his behaviour at the time.

This story comes after an inpouring of similar stories of sexual harassment in Hollywood, beginning with producer Harvey Weinstein.