Dustin Hoffman Recalls 'Terrible' Experience Filming The Graduate

Dustin Hoffman may have become a Hollywood star thanks to The Graduate, but behind the scenes of the film that launched his career and earned him his first Oscar nomination lay an experience he is hardly fond of recalling. Nearly 60 years after the movie hit theaters, the actor is reflecting on one of the defining roles of his career, revealing what made the production a deeply distressing ordeal.

In an essay published in The New Yorker, Hoffman recounts his early days on set and the overwhelming anxiety he faced. "I felt immediately uncomfortable, unworthy. I was playing a lead in a movie by Mike Nichols, who was the most sought-after director at the time, but I felt I had no right to be there," he wrote. "It was a terrible experience, making the movie that changed my life."

A large part of his insecurity stemmed from the constant fear that Nichols was angry with him, or that the director had realized he made a massive mistake in casting him. Hoffman, a Jewish native of New York, struggled to see himself portraying Benjamin Braddock, an affluent, WASP-y college graduate and track star. When makeup artists tried to alter his appearance during preparations, he thought to himself: "They are trying to take the Jew off my face, and that's not going to happen."

Despite his doubts and a grueling shoot that included being slapped 27 times and suffering a ruptured eardrum from underwater pressure, The Graduate premiered in December 1967 to massive critical and commercial success, earning seven Academy Award nominations and cementing Hoffman's status as a cinematic icon.