# In 1967, Dustin Hoffman launched his career with ‘The Graduate’. It made $105,000,000, and won an Oscar, but he now says it was “a terrible experience”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/in-1967-dustin-hoffman-launched-his-career-with-the-graduate-it-made-105000000-and-won-an-oscar-but-he-now-says-it-was-a-terrible-experience/
- Published: 2026-11-03T13:32:29+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-03T14:50:09+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1967-dustin-hoffman-launched-career-graduate-105000000-won-oscar-terrible-experience/
- Topics: Music

## Key points

- Hoffman says filming *The Graduate* was a terrible experience.
- He was slapped 27 times for a scene cut from the film.
- He later saw Benjamin as an alter ego for director Mike Nichols.

## Summary

Dustin Hoffman has described filming *The Graduate* as “a terrible experience”, despite the 1967 film launching his screen career and changing his life. In an extract from his memoir, he says the lead role intensified his insecurities and that director Mike Nichols’ behaviour towards him felt unusually harsh.

Hoffman recounts being slapped 27 times by co-star Katharine Ross for a scene that was cut, then perforating his eardrum while swimming underwater the following day. He says Nichols was often irritable and that he initially feared he had been miscast, but later thought Nichols saw the character Benjamin as an alter ego. The film won Nichols an Oscar for best director, and Hoffman has also said he and Ross may have been cast partly because Nichols’ search for actors had gone on for two years.

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