Actor Dustin Hoffman apologized Wednesday after landing on the ever-growing list of men recently accused of sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry.
Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleges that Hoffman made inappropriate comments to her and groped her, while she was working as an intern on the set of "Death of a Salesman" in 1985. Hunter, who was 17 at the time, wrote about her accusations in a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter.
Hunter, who is currently working on a memoir, kept a diary of her five weeks on the set as a production assistant. Hunger wrote in her column:
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.The first several times I told this story, I left out the soft-boiled clitoris. When I finally started including it, my voice sometimes broke. But it got easier.
In an entry on Jan. 31, 1985, Hunter wrote that she "realized some things about this business that really scare me. First of all, Dustin's a lech. I'm completely disillusioned."
She went on to write:
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. He took off his hat and pointed to his head (shaved for the part) and said, 'No, I'm a dirty young man, I have a full head of hair.' So would [producer] Bob [Colesberry] have fired me if he'd seen me hit Dustin?
Now 49, Hunter explains that her feelings toward Hoffman were complicated then and remain complicated today. She admits that he was gross, but she still likes watching him onscreen.
"I would be more comfortable if I felt nothing but revulsion for a man who had power over me and abused it," she wrote.
"I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation," Hoffman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
Hoffman's behavior has come under scrutiny in the past.
During the filming of "Kramer vs. Kramer," the actor tried to improve Meryl Streep's performance by slapping her and taunting her about her boyfriend's death, according to The Guardian.
“I was getting divorced, I’d been partying with drugs and it depleted me in every way,” Hoffman said of his behavior at the time.
Hoffman, 80, is a two-time Oscar winner for the films "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) and "Rain Man" (1988).
In recent months, producer Harvey Weinstein, filmmaker James Toback, and actor Kevin Spacey are among the list of men in Hollywood who have been accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
