Anna Graham Hunter, a 49-year-old author, has accused veteran Hollywood star Dustin Hoffman of sexually harassing her while she interned as a production assistant on the set of the television film "The Death of a Salesman”, as a 17-year-old in 1985.
The accusation against Hoffman comes after Oscar winner and House of Cards protagonist Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual harassment by actor Anthony Rapp.
After this accusation, Spacey came out as a gay and also apologised to Rapp, but added that he did not remember such an incident taking place.
In an article written for The Hollywood Reporter, Hunter included the notes that she took as a teenager detailing what transpired on the sets in the fives weeks she was there. The author said she still feels conflicted about the incident and was encouraged not to talk about it at that time.
Contacted by The Hollywood Reporter, Hoffman responded, “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.”
"This is a story I've told so often I'm sometimes surprised when someone I know hasn't heard it. It begins, 'Dustin Hoffman sexually harassed me when I was 17'," she wrote.
Hunter said she was a senior in high school in New York City, interning as a production assistant. Hoffman asked her to give him a foot massage on her first day on the set and she did.
He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, ‘I’ll have a hard- boiled egg... and a soft-boiled clitoris.Anna Graham
His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless.Then I went to the bathroom and cried. The first several times I told this story, I left out the soft-boiled clitoris. When I finally started including it, my voice sometimes broke. But it got easier.
Hunter, 49, said she loved being on the set, which also included John Malkovich, Arthur Miller and Charles Durnng.
“And yes, I loved the attention from Dustin Hoffman. Until I didn’t,” the author claimed.
"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," she added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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