Dustin Hoffman has reflected on the difficult experience of making 'The Graduate,' the 1967 comedy-drama that launched him to fame as Ben Braddock and transformed his life. In a recent essay for The New Yorker, published on October 31, he recalled feeling deeply unsettled on set.
“I felt immediately uncomfortable, unworthy. 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,” Hoffman writes. “It was a terrible experience making the movie that changed my life.”
The actor says much of his anxiety came from worrying that Nichols “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 adds that the production “exacerbated all my insecurities from the start.” Although Nichols was “irritable with everyone,” Hoffman felt that a “certain sadism ... seemed to creep in” specifically in his interactions with him.
Indeed, Dustin Hoffman is one of Hollywood's most versatile actors, with a career that speaks for itself. Browse this gallery and take a look at the highs—and one or two lows—in the career of this legendary film star. Read on for more.