A US author claims she was sexually harassed by Dustin Hoffman when she was a 17-year-old intern on the set of the movie, Death of a Salesman.
Anna Graham Hunter was working as a production assistant on the 1985 film, where she claims the actor groped her, coaxed her into giving him a foot massage and asked her intimate details about her sex life.
However, sharing excerpts of her diary from her time on the film with The Hollywood Reporter , she insists her allegations aren’t part of a clear-cut “victim and villain” situation, admitting she “loved the attention… until I didn’t.”
Anna said on her first day on set, she claims Hoffman asked for a foot massage, and two days later he allegedly told Anna and his costars, including John Malkovich, that he wasn’t a fan of tanned breasts because it made them look like part of the body, and in response, Ann hailed him a “great storyteller.”
In week two, Anna, who was then a virgin, claims he quizzed her about her sex life, demanding to know if she had gone all the way with anyone that weekend, “like I told you.”
And while she admits “cracking up” with laughter over his inquisition, that all changed when she claims he told another production assistant that he wanted her breasts for lunch, and allegedly grabbed Anna’s bum four times on the way to his limo.
Each time, she says she responded by hitting him, and when she called him a “dirty old man,” he allegedly replied, “No, I’m a dirty young man, I have a full head of hair.”
She claims the worst came when she went into Hoffman’s dressing room to take his breakfast order one morning, and he allegedly asked her for “a hard-boiled egg… and a soft-boiled clitoris,” the humiliation of which Anna claims left her sobbing in the toilet.
After that, she confronted him and made it clear that she didn’t appreciate his “wandering hands or comments,” and says he apologised and from then on treated her with nothing but “paternal” affection.
However, she claims she was reprimanded by her supervisor for making it “an issue.”
She told THR on reflection:
“Yes, he was gross. But he could also be sweet and wanted me to like him. Which I did… Whenever I talk about this, I sense that my listeners want a victim and a villain. And I wish my feelings were as clear as theirs. I would be more comfortable if I felt nothing but revulsion for a man who had power over me and abused it. But I still like watching him onscreen.
“At 49, I understand what Dustin Hoffman did as it fits into the larger pattern of what women experience in Hollywood and everywhere. He was a predator, I was a child, and this was sexual harassment. As to how it fits into my own pattern, I imagine I’ll be figuring that out for years to come.”
“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.”
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
