Meryl Streep Rep Claims Past Dustin Hoffman Harassment Claim Was ‘Inaccurate’

A rep for Meryl Streep has retracted a statement the actress made in a 1979 interview about Dustin Hoffman.

MERYL STREEP REP RETRACTS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIM WITH DUSTIN HOFFMAN

Last week, Anna Graham Hunter, a former production assistant on the Hoffman-helmed Death of a Salesman, opened up about the alleged sexual harassment she received from Hoffman in 1985. He was 47 at the time and she was just 17, and has notes written at the time about lewd comments and actions Hoffman made toward her.

Hoffman has since apologized, but now Slate has dug up a 1979 interview with Streep, in which she accused Hoffman of similar actions. “He came up to me and said, ‘I’m Dustin—burp—Hoffman,’ and he put his hand on my breast,” Streep said in that interview. “What an obnoxious pig, I thought.”

Now, however, a rep for the actress is further commenting on what Streep said decades ago. “There was an offense and it is something for which Dustin apologized. And Meryl accepted that,” the rep told E! News. In the 38 years since the incident, Hoffman has not publicly commented on the “offense.”

Streep’s original story echoes many in the industry, and some against Hoffman specifically. His The Graduate co-star Katharine Ross claimed that he “very gently” pinched her behind at their first test screen. In 1992, Hoffman responded to the claim, saying he did it “to help loosen us up.” Various harassment stories have circulated about Hoffman for years, and he even admitted to “a lot of chauvinism, a lot of womanizing in my past.”

A 1982 biography on the actor describes how Hoffman finds himself unable to resist the temptation of a woman. “Even Dustin has admitted on occasion that he loves to flirt, claiming that he does it as an involuntary reflex,” reads an excerpt. “He has supposedly cornered women in elevators to solicit sex and has even unzipped one woman reporter’s blouse to peek down her chest during an interview. He tries to catch himself, but finds it difficult to overcome the temptation.”

Despite admitting to “cornering” women and even tricking a 20-year-old into having sex with him when he was just 15 by pretending to be his older brother, Hoffman has responded to the recent claims by Hunter with an apology. “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,” he said.