. . . said the prop man to actor Dustin Hoffman, when the latter inadvertently dropped seven or eight New York City subway tokens on the floor of the set after badly blowing his audition for the part of "Ben Braddock" in THE GRADUATE. However, this 23-minute long interview reveals that the producers of the biggest money grosser of 1968 (though it was released in December, 1967, this movie made the bulk of its take the following year) wanted to profit by every nickel possible, in a vain attempt to top GONE WITH THE WIND's inflation-adjusted haul. Therefore, since Robert Redford was demanding several thousand dollars more to play "Ben" than Hoffman's agent was willing to settle for, Dustin was tapped for the role. Another short done in 1992 to mark the 25th anniversary of THE GRADUATE has Hoffman revealing that his own percentage of the millions forked over by the movie-going public to see this flick was so minuscule, a LIFE Magazine photographer "caught" him red-handed in an unemployment checks line at the height of the film's run. Evidentally, he needed some dough to buy more subway tokens!
2 Reviews
Fun Interview with Hoffman
Michael_Elliott4 January 2012
One on One with Dustin Hoffman (1994)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entertaining interview with Hoffman discussing his role in THE GRADUATE. At just around twenty-minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but I think the actor is so entertaining to listen to that he could have told any stories and it still would have been fun. I think the most fascinating thing is the story early on when Hoffman goes into great detail about his screen test for the movie. He talks about his thoughts leaving New York, landing in California and explaining even what the make-up was like. Hoffman talks about the embarrassment of being "worked" on with them trying to fix various issues on his face including his nose. From here we learn about him being questioned by Mike Nichols and about his first meeting with Katharine Ross when he thought it must have been a joke that anyone would consider her being with him. There's even a funny story about his pinching her butt and her going off on him. Another nice story comes towards the very end when Hoffman shares his idea for a sequel that of course never materialized. Overall, Hoffman is such an entertaining person that I could listen to him hours on end. The interview and stories are somewhat all over the place but the amount of detail really gives you a great idea what it was like going through this process of getting hired.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Entertaining interview with Hoffman discussing his role in THE GRADUATE. At just around twenty-minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but I think the actor is so entertaining to listen to that he could have told any stories and it still would have been fun. I think the most fascinating thing is the story early on when Hoffman goes into great detail about his screen test for the movie. He talks about his thoughts leaving New York, landing in California and explaining even what the make-up was like. Hoffman talks about the embarrassment of being "worked" on with them trying to fix various issues on his face including his nose. From here we learn about him being questioned by Mike Nichols and about his first meeting with Katharine Ross when he thought it must have been a joke that anyone would consider her being with him. There's even a funny story about his pinching her butt and her going off on him. Another nice story comes towards the very end when Hoffman shares his idea for a sequel that of course never materialized. Overall, Hoffman is such an entertaining person that I could listen to him hours on end. The interview and stories are somewhat all over the place but the amount of detail really gives you a great idea what it was like going through this process of getting hired.
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