John Oliver Put Dustin Hoffman On Blast About Sexual Misconduct In A Panel That Got REALLY Awkward

Deadline- In a striking and raw demonstration of the angst that has accumulated over Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandals, HBO host John Oliver sparred with Dustin Hoffman during an awkward 45-minute Q&A intended as a prologue to a 20th-anniversary screening of the film Wag the Dog.

Hoffman, who earlier this fall issued an apology following accusations that he inappropriately touched production assistant Anna Graham Hunter, then 17, during the making of a TV movie version of Death of a Salesman in 1985.

“You’ve made one statement in print,” Oliver said. “Does that feel like enough to you?” Hoffman replied, “First of all, it didn’t happen, the way she reported.” He said his apology over the incident, offered, he said, at the insistence of his reps, was widely misconstrued “at the click of a button.” But the Last Week Tonight host seized on the portion of the actor’s public apology, in which Hoffman said the events that happened on set didn’t reflect who he is as a person.

“It’s that part of the response to this stuff that pisses me off,” Oliver said. “It is reflective of who you were. You’ve given no evidence to show that it didn’t happen. There was a period of time when you were creeping around women. It feels like a cop-out to say, ‘Well, this isn’t me.’ Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?”‘

Hoffman shot back, “You weren’t there.” Oliver responded, “I’m glad,” drawing gasps from the well-heeled audience, many of whom had paid hefty ticket prices. 

“You’ve put me on display here,” Hoffman told Oliver, seething but never raising his voice or leaving his seat. “You have indicted me. … That’s not innocent until proven guilty.”

Hoffman tried to put it in historical context, saying sometimes the atmosphere on set decades ago involved sexually charged banter, which he said was not meant in an offensive way. ‘I don’t love that answer either,” Oliver said, cringing. “What response do you want?” Hoffman demanded. “It doesn’t feel self-reflective in the way it seems the incident demands,” Oliver explained, adding, “I get no pleasure from this conversation. But you and I are not the victims here.”

When Oliver quoted from an account Hoffman’s accuser wrote, the actor asked Oliver, incredulous, “Do you believe this stuff you’re reading?” Oliver said he did “because she would have no reason to lie.”

As this went on, the other panelists largely stayed mum. The audience seemed divided — some in the well-heeled crowd, who had forked over hundreds of dollars to spend the night re-living a Clintonian satire, took offense at Oliver staying on the issue. “Move on!” one person shouted. “He thinks it’s funny,” sputtered one man as he escorted his wife out of the theatre. Others applauded when Oliver expressed his view. “Thank you for believing women!” one woman called out. The spasms of conflict and accusation were followed by long stretched of silence, during which no one in the theatre knew quite what to do.

“Have you seen Tootsie?” he asked Oliver at one point. When Oliver insisted that he had and that he enjoyed Hoffman’s performance in it, Hoffman told a detailed story about staying in makeup and costume as Dorothy, the film’s title character, after shooting had ended one night and experiencing misogyny first-hand. “How could I have made that movie if I didn’t have incredible respect for women?” he asked. “It’s shocking to me that you don’t see me more clearly.”

Can you IMAGINE being in the audience for this? The article says these polished society snobs paid hundreds of dollars for a ticket, but I would have forked over a cool thousand at LEAST to witness the fireworks of discomfit between Oliver and Hoffman. All I can say is, John Oliver better have the cleanest closet in the entire world–no skeletons of any kind. Because when you go scorched earth on someone like this, you have to be infallible. Everybody has dirt.

Let’s examine some of the highlights:

1.

Hoffman: you weren’t there

Oliver: I’m glad. 

That right there is what separates a brilliant talk show host-comedian from Joe Schmo comedian. Oliver responding instantly with a comeback that dunks all over Hoffman’s statement. Could I have thought of the “I’m glad” comeback? Sure, but it would have come to me in the middle of the night a week later. I’d have jumped out of bed and looked around for a witness to hear my glorious comeback, only to find my apartment empty and cold, solitary and unwelcoming… I need a girlfriend/dog.

2.

Hoffman: do you believe this stuff you’re reading? 

Oliver: [Yes] because she would have no reason to lie. 

To me, this is a stretch from Oliver. I lie when I have no reason to lie all the time. Sometimes I’ll lie just because the truth is boring. Like one time I told a guy I had a black belt in jiujitsu. We weren’t preparing for a fight and I wasn’t trying to sleep with him, but I had recently watched some MMA submission clips on YouTube and jiujitsu skills, which I don’t have, seemed a lot cooler than piano skills, which I have. I think he said “oh, cool.” And that was the end of the conversation. See what I mean? Just because someone doesn’t have a reason to lie doesn’t mean they’re telling the truth. If murders were only committed by people with a motive, then how would you explain how indifferent I feel when I decapitate entire families of mice on Thursday evenings? There are plenty of weirdos out there who can’t explain their behavior, trust me.

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3.

Hoffman: Have you seen Tootsie? … How could I have made that movie if I didn’t have incredible respect for women?

Maybe because they paid you 5 million dollars? That’s a pretty compelling reason, and one that easily trumps “respect for women” as motivation. Hell, you pay me $5 million and I’ll have gender reassignment surgery tomorrow. I’ll spend the rest of my days as a 6’3”, 210-pound chick, dunking all over the WNBA and playing with my brand new vagina in the off season. $5 million is a lot of bitcoins!

In the end, I’m fascinated to see Hoffman standing up for himself and toeing-in with Oliver simply because we haven’t heard many of the accused men offer defenses of their behavior. I definitely think Hoffman did this shit and is wrong, but it’s interesting to hear his attempt to justify his actions. And similar credit is due to John Oliver for not taking his foot off the guillotine pedal. Given that Oliver pushed Hoffman to the point where he used the “it was a different time” excuse, you’d have to say Oliver comes out on top here. That, to me, could be read as an admission of guilt. Either way, the attendees of the 92nd Street Y were treated to a firefight for the ages between one of Hollywood’s great actors and the unapologetic, unrelenting John Oliver.