Even before terms like ‘MILF’ and ‘cougar’ had entered the vernacular, The Graduate became a genuine sensation and left an indelible mark on everyone who saw it.
Anne Bancroft played one of the leading roles of her career, combining refinement, beauty and emotional depth with striking ease, whilst Dustin Hoffman’s awkward innocence made the film at once relatable, funny and very much alive. Scenes such as the iconic line ‘Mrs Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you?’ have long since become legendary.
But even such a masterpiece was not without its mistakes and curiosities. And there is a story behind one particularly steamy scene that few people know about… and once you hear it, you will never be able to watch that episode in the same way again…
The Graduate was released in 1967, at the height of Beatlemania, when the Vietnam War was already sparking street protests. Hippie culture was rapidly gaining momentum, and people were increasingly questioning authority, social norms, sex and relationships. The film managed to capture the very essence of the era — vividly, accurately and brilliantly capturing its time.
But even such a masterpiece had its hidden sides. Almost sixty years on, little-known mistakes and curious stories from the set are finally coming to light, and they may well change your view of this film forever.
A window cleaner?
In the role of Benjamin Braddock — a recent college graduate drawn into a scandalous affair with the older, married Mrs Robinson, played by Anne Bancroft — Hoffman brilliantly conveyed a painful awkwardness and self-consciousness.
Braddock’s politeness and utter naivety proved to be a real comic gem in the film.
When Hoffman came to audition for the part, he was not yet thirty. At the time, he was not a well-known actor, and what’s more, the producers hadn’t originally envisaged him for the role at all.
When Hoffman turned up at the casting office, producer Joseph E. Levine mistook him for a window cleaner. Hoffman instantly realised what was going on, kept his cool and even started wiping the glass. It was only a moment later that Levine realised who was actually standing before him — and that’s when the real magic of the casting began.
Why Robert Redford didn’t get the part
Before the role of Benjamin Braddock went to Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford had auditioned alongside Candice Bergen. However, director Mike Nichols wasn’t convinced that Redford could convincingly portray the loser that the character required.
When Nichols explained his reservations, Redford set about proving that he fully understood Benjamin’s awkwardness and his sense of social alienation.
Nichols listened to him — and then landed a decisive blow with a single sentence:
‘Bob, take a look at yourself in the mirror. Can you really imagine that a man like you would have trouble seducing a woman?”
Redford got the message, and the role went to another actor, but a bond had already formed between him and Nichols by then: Nichols had previously cast him in his first Broadway hit, Barefoot in the Park.
He was nicknamed ‘Big Nose’
Speaking of the chaotic casting for The Graduate — here’s another noteworthy detail: Hoffman was asked to perform a love scene with the daughter of the heroine, Anne Bancroft, played by Katharine Ross, even though he had never filmed such scenes before.
He later admitted: ‘A girl like Ross would never be interested in a bloke like me, not even in a million years.’ Ross herself was also unsure, saying that Hoffman ‘looked barely a metre tall with his cap on… so unkempt. It would be a disaster.’
And yet, despite all this awkwardness — or perhaps precisely because of it — Mike Nichols cast him anyway. Nichols subsequently won an Oscar for Best Director for this film.
‘As far as I understand, Mike Nichols took a huge risk by casting me in a role for which I wasn’t suited, in the sense that I was Jewish. In fact, many of the reviews were very negative. It was a kind of veiled anti-Semitism… In the reviews, I was called ‘big-nosed’ and they wrote about my ‘nasal voice’,” Hoffman recalled years later.
From box-office triumph to $55 a week
The Graduate grossed a staggering $104.9 million and became the biggest hit of 1967, but Dustin Hoffman himself hardly got rich. He was paid $20,000 for his role in the film, and after paying taxes and rent for temporary accommodation, he was left with just $4,000. So what did he do next? He applied for unemployment benefit in New York State and received $55 a week, living in a tiny two-room flat in the West Village.
Why Doris Day turned it down
We’ve already said a lot about Dustin Hoffman, but Anne Bancroft, in the role of Mrs Robinson, literally stole the show. It is hard to imagine anyone else playing this character with such power, subtlety and inner tension. Bancroft was an outstanding actress — perhaps even underrated — and although she did not win an Oscar for this role, her performance remains unforgettable and truly iconic to this day.