Meryl Streep clarified comments she made about actor Dustin Hoffman in a 1979 interview in Time. Slate highlighted the decades-old interview, because Streep claimed that Hoffman grabbed her breast. While talking to Time, she called the actor an "obnoxious pig."
Representation for Streep explained that the article from 1979 was not an "accurate rendering" of the situation.
"There was an offense and it is something for which Dustin apologized. And Meryl accepted that," Streep's rep told E! News.
Streep's comments about Hoffman in full read:
"[Hoffman] came up to me and said, ‘I’m Dustin — burp — Hoffman,’ and he put his hand on my breast. What an obnoxious pig, I thought." Streep was auditioning for a play Hoffman would be directing.
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Slate highlighted this anecdote, which was taken lightly at the time, because Hoffman is one of the many lauded Hollywood actors, directors and producers taken down by the recent stream of sexual harassment allegations. In late October, the actress Anna Graham Hunter alleged that Hoffman harassed her on the set of Death of a Salesman (1985) when she was just 17.
In response, Hoffman released a statement that reads, "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."
Volker Schlondorff, the director of Death of a Salesman, also responded to the allegations, saying that Hoffman was merely a "kidder" on set. "Standard Monday-morning question was, indeed, 'Did you have good sex over the weekend?,'" Schlondorff told The Hollywood Reporter. "A joke, a running gag, everybody laughed at."
In addition, on November 1, the producer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis made similar allegations. Riss Gatsiounis claimed Hoffman harassed her in 1991 when the actor approached her about her play A Darker Purpose.
Refinery29 has reached out to representation for Streep for comment.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article implied that the "offense" referenced in Streep's statement refers to the meeting Streep described in the 1979 interview. Streep's statement does not make it clear when the offense occurred.
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