Legendary actor Dustin Hoffman became the latest Hollywood star to make headlines over sexual assault allegations on Wednesday, (Nov.1). In an exclusive published by The Hollywood Reporter, "Death of a Salesman" actress Anna Graham Hunter opens up about how she was encouraged to put up with numerous occasions of harassment via lewd talk and uninvited passes, along with several instances in which Hoffman groped her.
According to Hunter, Hoffman began to impose himself on her the very first day she met him on the set of the 1985 film. At the time she was a 17-year-old aspiring to break into the business but revealed that she soon realized what that has entailed for many women who enter the industry with the aspirations she had at the time. 24 hours hadn't passed before she was asked to give Hoffman a foot rub, according to one account. Hunter confesses that she agreed, but didn't anticipate where it would go from there.
“He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my a**, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, ‘I’ll have a hard-boiled egg … and a soft-boiled clitoris,'" Hunter told THR. "His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless. Then I went to the bathroom and cried,” she said. The former actress claims that she did eventually consult someone on the production team about Hoffman's forceful advances, but that she was advised to go with the flow by an individual who downplayed his maneuvers.
Upon receiving news that Hunter had gone to the press about his alleged behavior, Hoffman issued an apology, stating: “I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am."
