Dustin Hoffman has become the latest victim of a sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood, as an actress is accusing the Hollywood legend of grabbing her butt and making lewd sexual remarks when she was 17-years-old.
As Kevin Spacey’s acting career continues falling apart in the wake of sexual assault allegations, with experts saying the disgraced actor could be facing up to three years in state prison , Hoffman may have just become the next in line to see his career crumble before his eyes.
Writer and actress Anna Graham Hunter is accusing Hoffman, now 80, of sexually harassing her, groping her butt and engaging in sexually inappropriate conversations on the set of 1985’s Death of a Salesman TV film.
Hunter, who published her revelations in a column for the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday morning, wrote that she was just 17 when the two-time Oscar-winning actor allegedly sexually harassed her.
In her column, the actress, now 49, said Hoffman was “openly flirtatious” with her, asking her to give him a foot massage on her first day on set, grabbing her butt and talking about sex.
Hunter wrote about how Hoffman once allegedly told her he wanted a “hard-boiled egg” and “a soft-boiled clitoris” when the then 17-year-old intern walked into his dressing room to take his breakfast order.
The woman said the Rain Man star “looked at me and grinned, taking his time,” before making the disturbing remark. Hunter alleged that his entourage “burst out laughing,” prompting her to leave.
“Then I went to the bathroom and cried,” Hunter recalled the alleged incident involving Hoffman.
The actress, who interned as a production assistant at the time, also alleged that Hoffman repeatedly asked her if she had recently had sex, and told the intern that he would like to have her breasts for lunch.
Hunter also alleged that the Hollywood megastar gave several women on the set of Death of a Salesman a keyring that read, “Love, Willy.”
“At 49, I understand what Dustin Hoffman did as it fits into the larger pattern of what women experience in Hollywood and everywhere,” Hunter wrote of Hoffman’s alleged behavior, describing the then 48-year-old actor as “a predator.”
“I was a child, and this was sexual harassment,” the actress wrote.
Even though Hunter had never talked publicly about the alleged sexual harassment involving Hoffman, the writer claims she has copies of mailed dispatches to her sister in London detailing the disturbing encounters with the actor. Hunter wrote she had spent five weeks on the set.
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Hoffman, and the Hollywood actor responded with apologies.
“I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation,” Hoffman told the publication. “I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.”
It’s not the first time Hoffman’s troubling behavior has come under increased scrutiny. Meryl Streep has previously told Vanity Fair that Hoffman would slap her to improve her performance in a dramatic scene on the set of 1979’s Kramer vs Kramer .
Hoffman has previously made comments about his behavior at the time.
“I was getting divorced, I’d been partying with drugs and it depleted me in every way,” said of his behavior in the early ’80s when speaking at the British Academy’s HQ in 2012.
[Featured Image by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]