Dustin Hoffman, who rose to fame after starring as Ben Braddock in Mike Nichols’ classic film “The Graduate,” opened up about his experience filming 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 film changed his life.
“I immediately felt uncomfortable, unworthy. There I was, playing the lead in a movie by Mike Nichols, who was the director of the moment, but I felt like I had no right to be there,” Hoffman wrote at the start of his time on set. “It was a terrible experience making this film that changed my life.” Much of his anxiety came from the fact that Nichols “was angry with me, either because I was doing something wrong or because he had realized what everyone already knew, which was that he had miscast the lead role in his film.”
Hoffman writes that the film “exacerbated all my insecurities from the start.” “When my agent told me that Mike was interested in me, I didn’t even want to apply for the role. I had read the Charles Webb novel that Mike was adapting, and it was obvious that I had Benjamin all wrong. A track star and straight-A student, leader of the debate team, he was an all-American rich kid whose last name was ‘Braddock.’ Why would you cast someone as ethnic as me to play the Ultimate Wasp ?It made absolutely no sense.” He went on to explain that his agent convinced him to test for the role, which he ultimately got.
However, beyond Hoffman’s concerns about his ability to play Ben, he also writes that Nichols was “often sour” on set, a “shocking and unsettling” change from his personality during rehearsals. “I often felt like I was about to be fired. When we were shooting some of the most famous sequences in the film, I remember thinking: I have no fucking idea what I’m doing,” Hoffman said.
He also notes that while the director was “irritable with everyone”, there was a “certain sadism” that “seemed to seep in” only to him.
He continued: “There was a scene where Katharine Ross had to slap me, and he made us do twenty-seven takes. In the scene, Benjamin ran into Elaine’s room, drenched in the rain, to tell her that he had had an affair with an older woman; within seconds, Elaine realizes that this woman is his mother. Mike kept telling Katharine to hit me, to hit me harder. Katharine was afraid she was going to hurt me. hurt, and I told him, “I’m fine, just don’t hit my ear. Unfortunately, she missed several times. I was dizzy by the end of the day and Mike didn’t even use the slap in the movie.
The next day, Hoffman filmed an underwater scene that required him to remain submerged in a diving suit. “When I came up for air after a few takes, blood was coming out of my ear. Between all the slaps the day before and all the pressure of the water at the bottom of the pool, I had burst my eardrum,” he wrote.
“The Graduate” was first released theatrically on December 22, 1967. According to its official description, the film follows a disillusioned college graduate (Hoffman) who finds himself torn between his older lover (Anne Bancroft) and her daughter (Ross). It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and was named Best Picture at the 40th Academy Awards.
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