Dustin Hoffman has revealed that he once believed he was seconds from death after an angry husband found him in bed with a married woman. The Oscar winner recalled the frightening confrontation during a Nov. 9 episode of Conan O’Brien’s podcast, as reported [1] by Page Six.
Hoffman, 89, said the illicit relationship took place when he was a young man. His account began with the woman believing her husband would remain asleep, creating an opportunity for Hoffman to visit her.
“I was having an affair with a married woman,” Hoffman revealed. “And she thought that once her husband went to sleep, that he stayed asleep.”
According to Hoffman, the woman invited him over after her husband had gone to sleep. What followed quickly turned from a secret encounter into a terrifying confrontation when the husband unexpectedly appeared with a weapon.
“And there we are having a festival of sorts and he walked in with a gun,” Hoffman shared. The actor said the husband then aimed the weapon directly at him and ordered him to leave.
“And he pointed at me. And he said, I remember what he says, ‘Get out, get out.’” Hoffman recalled.
The command gave Hoffman a way out of the situation, but the sight of the gun left him convinced that the husband might fire at any moment. He vividly remembered how the weapon appeared while it was pointed in his direction.
“When you have a gun pointed at you, first of all, that hole is much bigger than the actual hole,” he recalled. Hoffman said the husband’s finger was on the trigger, intensifying his fear that the confrontation could end with his death.
“And you realize how, any second, any second he’s going to pull that trigger, because his finger is on the trigger. And you think … and you realize, it’s it … I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die the next second.”
The actor’s memories centered on the immediate fear of being killed and the desperate response that followed. Hoffman described reaching a point where avoiding death became the only thing that mattered.
“And you do anything, you will do anything, you know, to avoid getting killed.”
Hoffman did not provide further details in the account about the woman, her husband or what happened after he was ordered out. His recollection instead focused on the moment the husband entered, raised the gun and left him expecting the trigger to be pulled.
The startling disclosure arrived while Hoffman is promoting his memoir, “Look at Me.” The book also contains his memories of his career, including his difficult experience making “The Graduate.”
In a previous excerpt from the memoir, Hoffman described filming “The Graduate” as a terrible experience. He wrote that director Mike Nichols became “an entirely different person” after shooting started.
Hoffman recalled Nichols undergoing dramatic changes in mood during the production. Although the actor said he could not remember the particular scene involved, he remembered the director’s cutting response after one of his takes.
“His mood would shift dramatically. I don’t remember the scene, but I will never forget Mike’s acid voice saying to me, after one take: ‘What were you doing?’ … Do the opposite of that.’”
Despite Hoffman’s memories of a difficult production and Nichols’ sharp criticism, “The Graduate” became a huge hit. The movie also earned Hoffman his first Oscar nomination, giving the actor a major professional result from an experience he remembered as terrible.