Meryl Streep Says Dustin Hoffman Slapped Her
by EG
Meryl Streep apparently doesn't want to be accused for staying silent about the misconduct of men in Hollywood, at least when it comes to Dustin Hoffman. Streep has backpedaled on a claim she made years ago that Hoffman grabbed her breast the first time they met, but in a recent interview, she says that he stepped over a line during the filming of their first movie scene together.
Meryl Streep didn't have a very good first day on the set of Kramer vs. Kramer, in which she starred opposite Dustin Hoffman.
The actress made a new comment on the behavior of Hoffman, currently plagued by multiple sexual misconduct claims, in a New York Times interview. While filming the 1979 movie, Hoffman slapped her during the first take of their first scene together — a moment that was detailed in last year's Vanity Fair story and one she now called "overstepping."
"This is tricky because when you’re an actor, you’re in a scene, you have to feel free," she told the Times. "I’m sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes. But there’s a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie."
"It was overstepping," she continued. "But I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they’re not politically corrected; they’re fixed. They will be fixed, because people won’t accept it anymore. So that’s a good thing."
Streep previously said in a 1979 interview that Hoffman grabbed her breast during their first meeting — an encounter for which Hoffman has apologized, according to the actress' representative. That archival interview resurfaced as multiple women came forward with accounts of Hoffman's behavior, which include a steady stream of obscene comments, gropes and inappropriate demands on set that date back to 1975.
The actress also told NYT that she experienced sexual harassment early on in her acting career. "Back in the day, when everybody was doing cocaine, there was a lot of [expletive] behavior that was inexcusable. But now that people are older, and more sober, there has to be forgiveness, and that’s the way I feel about it," she said, opting not to go into specifics. "I was really beaten up, but I don’t want to ruin somebody’s mature life. I just don’t. I do think if the world is going to go on, we have to find out a way to work together, and know that it’s better for men if they respect us deeply as equals."
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
Do you think Dustin Hoffman has acted inappropriately in his career? Let us know in the comments below.