Meryl Streep clarified comments she made about actor Dustin Hoffman in a 1979 interview in Time. Slate highlighted the decades-old interview because Streep claimed that Hoffman grabbed her breast. While talking to Time, she called the actor an "obnoxious pig". Representatives for Streep have said that the actress has since forgiven Hoffman.
"There was an offence and it is something for which Dustin apologised. And Meryl accepted that," Streep's rep told E! News. They added that the 1979 Time piece was not an "accurate rendering" of the situation.
Streep's comments about Hoffman in full read:
"[Hoffman] came up to me and said, ‘I’m Dustin — burp — Hoffman,’ and he put his hand on my breast. What an obnoxious pig, I thought." Streep was auditioning for a play Hoffman would be directing.
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Slate highlighted this anecdote, which was taken lightly at the time, because Hoffman is one of the many lauded Hollywood actors, directors and producers taken down by the recent stream of sexual harassment allegations. In late October, the actress Anna Graham Hunter alleged that Hoffman harassed her on the set of Death of a Salesman (1985) when she was just 17.
In response, Hoffman released a statement that reads, "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."
Volker Schlondorff, the director of Death of a Salesman, also responded to the allegations, saying that Hoffman was merely a "kidder" on set. "Standard Monday-morning question was, indeed, 'Did you have good sex over the weekend?'" Schlondorff told The Hollywood Reporter. "A joke, a running gag, everybody laughed at."
In addition, on 1st November, the producer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis made similar allegations. Riss Gatsiounis claimed Hoffman harassed her in 1991 when the actor approached her about her play A Darker Purpose.
Refinery29 has reached out to representation for both Hoffman and Streep for comment.
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