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Dustin Hoffman, who shot to fame after starring as Ben Braddock in Mike Nichols’ classic film “The Graduate,” has opened up about his experience shooting the 1967 comedy-drama in a recent essay for The New Yorker, which
he described as having been a “terrible experience” despite the fact that the movie changed his life.
“I felt immediately uncomfortable, unworthy. Here I was, playing a starring role in a movie by Mike Nichols, who was the director of the moment, but I felt like I had no right to be there,” writes Hoffman early in the piece of his time on set. “It was a terrible experience making the movie that changed my life.” Much of his anxiety stemmed from worrying that Nichols “was angry at me, either because I was doing something wrong or because he had realized what everybody else already knew, that he had miscast the lead in his film.”
Hoffman writes that the film “exacerbated all my insecurities from the start.” “When my agent said that Mike was interested in me, I didn’t even want to try out for the part. I had read the Charles Webb novel that Mike was adapting, and it was obvious that I was all wrong for Benjamin. A track star and straight-A student, the head of the debate team—this was an affluent, all-American kid, whose surname was ‘Braddock.’ Why would you cast a person who looks as ethnic as I do to play the ultimate Wasp? It made absolutely no sense.” He continued, explaining that his agent convinced him to screen-test for the role, which he ultimately got.
However, beyond Hoffman’s worries about his ability to play Ben, he also writes that Nichols was “frequently sour” on set, a “shocking, destabilizing” change from his personality during rehearsals. “I often felt that I was about to be fired. When we were shooting some of the film’s most famous sequences, I remember thinking, I have no fucking idea what I’m doing,” said Hoffman.
He also notes that while the director was “irritable with everyone,” there was a “certain sadism” that “seemed to creep in” only with him.
He continued: “There was a scene in which Katharine Ross had to slap me, and he made us do twenty-seven takes. The scene has Benjamin run into Elaine’s room, soaking wet from the rain, to tell her that he’s had an affair with an older woman; within seconds, Elaine realizes the woman is her mother. Mike just kept telling Katharine to hit me, to hit me harder. Katharine worried she would hurt me, and I told her, ‘I’m O.K. Just don’t hit my ear.’ Unfortunately, she missed a few times. I was dizzy by the end of that day, and Mike didn’t even use the slap in the film.”
The following day, Hoffman shot an underwater scene that required him to stay submerged in a scuba suit. “When I came up for air after a few takes, there was blood trickling out of my ear. Between all the slapping during the previous day and all the water pressure at the bottom of the pool, I’d punctured an eardrum,” he writes.
“The Graduate” first hit theaters on Dec. 22, 1967. It was nominated for seven Oscars and won for best picture at the 40th Academy Awards.
