We’ve already said a lot about Dustin Hoffman, but Anne Bancroft as Mrs Robinson literally stole the show. It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing this role with such power, subtlety and inner tension.
Bankcroft was an outstanding actress — perhaps underrated — and although she did not win an Oscar for this particular role, her portrayal of the character has remained forever etched in the memory of audiences and has become truly legendary.
Interestingly, Mike Nichols’ first choice for the role of Mrs Robinson was the French actress Jeanne Moreau. The reasoning behind this was that in French culture there was a stereotype that ‘mature’ women often ‘initiate’ young men into matters of love and sexuality. Casting the actress proved difficult — for example, Doris Day turned down the offer because she felt the nudity required by the script was excessive. In the end, the role went to Anne Bancroft, and she created a character that became truly unforgettable.
That very scene in the hotel
During rehearsals for the famous scene in the hotel room, Anne Bancroft had no idea what Dustin Hoffman was about to do. But suddenly he grabbed her breast.
Hoffman later explained that this gesture reminded him of schoolboys’ pranks, where they pretend to put on a jacket whilst trying to sneak a touch at someone.
When it happened, Mike Nichols burst out laughing, and Hoffman himself couldn’t hold back either. Instead of cutting the take, he turned towards the wall and started banging his head against it, trying to stifle his laughter. Nichols found the moment so funny that he decided to keep it in the final cut of the film.
So that sudden burst of awkward humour visible on screen was entirely genuine.
Mrs Robinson wasn’t much older
Anne Bancroft became an instant sensation thanks to her role as the seductive Mrs Robinson, but, despite the fact that she cemented her image as a ‘mature woman’, the actress was only 36 at the time — just eight years older than Katharine Ross, who played her on-screen daughter, and only six years older than Hoffman.
Of course, Hollywood did its best to visually emphasise the age difference, but that wasn’t the only factor. Hoffman naturally looked very youthful, almost boyish, whereas Bancroft, who had been a long-time smoker and drinker, appeared older than her years.
Elizabeth Wilson, who played Mrs Braddock, said in an interview with Connecticut Magazine in 2012 that Bancroft ‘had problems with alcohol’, and this probably partly explains why she looked older than her actual age in the film.
The sad end to Anne Bancroft’s life
Anne Bancroft herself admitted that the role left her with mixed feelings because, as she said in an interview, it ‘overshadowed all her other work’. For many years after the release of The Graduate, young men told the actress that she was the first woman they had ever fantasised about.
Sadly, Bancroft died of uterine cancer on 6 June 2005 at the age of 73. Her death came as a surprise to many, as the very private actress had kept her illness a secret. During a moving memorial service in New York in her honour, the lights on Broadway were dimmed, and Paul Simon performed the song ‘Mrs Robinson’.
An unusual decision for the time
Did you know that The Graduate made the folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel even more famous? Initially, director Mike Nichols and editor Sam O’Steen used their songs — such as The Sound of Silence — merely as a temporary musical backdrop to better gauge the rhythm of the editing. But Nichols soon realised that replacing them with an original soundtrack would rob the film of its special magic, so he kept these tracks in the film, which was quite an unusual move for the time.
Paul Simon did indeed write two songs for the film — ‘Punky’s Dilemma’ and ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’ — but Nichols rejected both. They were later included on the album Bookends. And what is particularly surprising is that the song ‘Mrs Robinson’ wasn’t originally written for the film at all. Simon was working on a song called ‘Mrs Roosevelt, dedicated to Eleanor Roosevelt, when Nichols decided to include it in the film.
It is also interesting to note that in the film version, Simon and Garfunkel perform only the chorus — without the verses. Moreover, some of the lyrics in this chorus differ from the final version, which later became a huge hit.
Two intriguing cinematographic techniques
The Graduate proved to be a groundbreaking film in many respects and was released at precisely the moment when it was most needed. Some of its visual choices are very subtle, yet truly brilliant.
Towards the end, there is a scene where Benjamin runs straight towards the camera. Thanks to a very long-focus telephoto lens, it creates the impression that he is barely moving from the spot, even though he is running with all his might. This is a subtle and clever way of showing his inner sense of stagnation.