New Delhi: The Graduate made Dustin Hoffman an overnight star, but making the 1967 film was far from a pleasant experience for the actor. In a recent essay for The New Yorker, Hoffman has opened up about the insecurities, anxiety and difficult moments he experienced while filming Mike Nichols’ comedy-drama.
He described the shooting as a “terrible experience” even though the film went on to change his life’s course. Not only did he get slapped 27 times on the set, but he also ended up puncturing his eardrum.
Hoffman, who played Benjamin Braddock, recalled feeling “immediately uncomfortable, unworthy” when he landed the lead role in the film.
“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,” he wrote.
Much of his anxiety came from his belief that Nichols was unhappy with his performance. Hoffman feared the director was either frustrated with his acting or had realised that he had made a mistake casting him in the lead role.
The actor also felt he was physically wrong for the character. Having read Charles Webb’s novel, which Nichols was adapting for the screen, Hoffman said Benjamin was supposed to be an affluent, all-American young man who is a track star, straight-A student and debate team leader.
“I didn’t even want to try out for the part,” he said, adding that he could not understand why someone who looked as “ethnic” as he did would be cast as the “ultimate wasp”. His agent eventually persuaded him to screen-test for the role, which he went on to secure.
However, Hoffman’s discomfort did not end with his casting. He recalled Nichols being “frequently sour” on set, which was quite opposite to the director’s demeanour during rehearsals. The actor said that there were multiple moments when he felt he was on the verge of being fired. Hoffman writes that he struggled with self-doubt while shooting some of the film’s most memorable sequences.
“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,” he wrote.
Although Nichols was “irritable with everyone”, Hoffman felt there was a “certain sadism” in the way the director treated him.
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‘I’d punctured an eardrum’
He particularly recalled shooting the scene in which Benjamin rushes into Elaine’s room, drenched in rain, to confess his affair with an older woman, only for Elaine to realise that the woman is her mother. The sequence required Katharine Ross, who played Elaine, to slap Hoffman. Nichols apparently made them repeat the scene 27 times, repeatedly asking Ross to hit him harder.
Ross was worried about hurting her co-star, but Hoffman assured her he was fine, asking only that she avoid hitting his ear. However, she missed a few times, leaving him dizzy by the end of the day. Hoffman added that Nichols ultimately did not even use the slapping in the final cut.
The ordeal, however, had consequences. The following day, Hoffman filmed an underwater sequence that required him to remain submerged in a scuba suit. When he surfaced after a few takes, he noticed blood trickling from his 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 wrote.
The Graduate went on to earn seven Academy Award nominations and bagged the Best Director for Nichols at the 40th Academy Awards. It also cemented Hoffman’s place in Hollywood.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)