Dustin Hoffman had a “terrible” time filming his iconic 1967 film “The Graduate.”
In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir, “Look at Me,” obtained by the New Yorker, the Golden Globe winner described “often [feeling] like he was about to be fired” while working with director Mike Nichols.
Noting that Nichols seemed to become “an entirely different person” once shooting began, Hoffman said the switch from “wonderful” to critical was “shocking” and “destabilizing.”
He found himself “in a state of constant anxiety.”
He recalled, “The whole time, I felt Mike 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 even heard from theatre director Ulu Grosbard, after an on-set visit, that Nichols was “very much” regretting hiring the actor to play Benjamin Braddock.
At the time, Hoffman felt like he never wanted to “make another movie again for the rest of [his] life.”
He described harsh notes from Nichols, down to criticism of his eyebrows and his “neck look[ing] too thick.”
Hoffman remembered, “His mood would shift dramatically. I don’t remember the scene, but I will never forget Mike’s acid voice saying to me, after one take: ‘What were you doing?’ … Do the opposite of that.’”
He recalled doing other scenes that left him “trashed from exhaustion and dehydration.”
The film — which depicts Braddock’s affair with family friend Mrs. Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft — went on to become a classic, with Nichols nabbing an Oscar in 1968 for best director.
Hoffman earned his first of seven Academy Award nominations for the role, as well as a Golden Globe win.
Nichols died in 2014 at 83 and, in his tell-all, Hoffman dubbed “The Graduate” a “self-portrait” of the EGOT winner’s life.
He called the project a “stand-in … to absorb Mike’s self-loathing,” explaining that Nichols had once said himself that it was his “unconscious making that movie.”
“Look at Me” hits bookshelves Nov. 10.
The post Dustin Hoffman recalls ‘terrible’ experience filming movie that earned him first Oscar nomination appeared first on Page Six.
