Dustin Hoffman on doubting himself during 'The Graduate'
The actor recounts feeling unworthy on set of Mike Nichols' breakthrough film, despite landing the role he initially thought wrong for him.
What to know
- Hoffman reveals he initially refused to audition for 'The Graduate,' believing he was wrong for the role of an affluent, all-American WASP named Benjamin Braddock.
- Despite landing the lead in Mike Nichols' prestigious film, Hoffman battled deep insecurity throughout production and avoided socializing with the cast and crew.
- The actor was only considered after a two-year casting search that saw Robert Redford and others rejected; he maintains he would never have been cast if seen earlier in the process.
- The essay contrasts Hoffman's newfound success in theater—standing ovations and Times cover coverage—with the anxiety of pivoting to Hollywood stardom.
“It was as if I'd been hiking up a mountain and, just when I could finally see the summit, here comes Mike in a helicopter, offering me a ride to a different peak.”
Dustin Hoffman, Actor in 'The Graduate' · The New Yorker ↗
Dustin Hoffman Lead actor in 'The Graduate'Mike Nichols Director of 'The Graduate'
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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Hacker News surfaces essay to broader readership
The essay gains traction on Hacker News, where it reaches 104 points and generates 31 comments, making it one of the platform's top culture posts for the day.
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As an aside, I admire Mike Nichols' ability to make gorgeous _looking_ movies. Many scenes from The Graduate, the State Island Ferry opening scene in The Working Girl, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. And even the 2003 movie Closer. That is almost a 40-year span.Atypically, he worked with 13 different cinematographers across his 19 movies…
2 more of the top 3 · 17 posts in this stretch
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Surviving "The Graduate" L: https://www. newyorker.com/culture/the-week end-essay/dustin-hoffman-on-surviving-the-graduate C: https:// news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5 0319563 posted on 2026.10.31 at 16:02:06 (c=0, p=3)
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I'm 45 and ~21 years into my post grad-school career. I'm finally accepting that I will probably _always_ feel like i'm failing and doing things badly and that's OK. The evidence suggests that I have in fact been doing at least a good enough job in my employers eyes to sustain a career and progress. When I look back on this evidence I don't…
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Hoffman publishes essay on 'The Graduate' insecurity
The New Yorker publishes Dustin Hoffman's first-person account of his experience filming 'The Graduate,' describing how he felt unworthy and out of place despite being cast in the lead role of Mike Nichols' acclaimed film.
“It was the film that made me famous. On set, all I could think about was how I was failing.”
— Dustin Hoffman -
2 outlets Surviving "The Graduate"
first by HN Frontpage, 12d ago · also New Yorker
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What people are saying 13 voices from 2 sites · best of 17 · verbatim
- Nov 1
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I don’t understand some of the things he’s writing in this article.Why does it matter if the author is Jewish? He mentions it multiple times as if that fact would make himself unfitting to be the lead in the movie…Like there’s this sentence which is confusing to me:”I remember thinking, They’re trying to take the Jew off my face, and it ain’t…
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This is why engineers (including devs) need mentors at all stages in their careers, not just when they're junior. And managers, who assign tasks and determine compensation, mostly can't be mentors.
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Wow, gorgeous writing, Ariel Levy was the perfect choice for helping write this.
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> Or maybe because I'm growing beyond my limit of capability.That boundary tends to become more and more fuzzy as you grow in your career. I think that’s where the feeling comes from. When you’re a software engineer it’s easy to know if you’ve failed or not. When you’re a CTO it’s often a matter of perspective and depends on what will happen in…
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Surviving "The Graduate" Link: https://www. newyorker.com/culture/the-week end-essay/dustin-hoffman-on-surviving-the-graduate Discussion: https:// news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5 0319563
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How do you learn if not by making mistakes? If you weren't ever failing, wouldn't that mean you also were not learning?As tough as it is, I think it's best for your development to be in a space where you're screwing up regularly.
- Oct 31
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People posting here are perhaps missing that it is a comedy - with a bit of tragedy right at the end.
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> As I grow in my career, on a day to day basis I feel like I'm failing or doing things badly.This is one thing that we should lament about AI generating all the code. You never get to look back at your own "hand crafted" work with the distance of time. Progress or perspective, it does not matter, one would probably find something they could have…
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I wonder if it's just me, or if the movie did not age well. I saw it for the first time around 10 years ago, and I was really expecting great things since I was a fan of hoffman and of simon and garfunkel. i found it a very lacklustre movie, nothing I had read about hoffman's iconic performance really landed for me, and the movie as a whole seemed…
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Something that I was mulling on just the other day. As I grow in my career, on a day to day basis I feel like I'm failing or doing things badly. Maybe because I have no comparison frame for it, because of the growth. Maybe because it's never possible, while you're in the thick of a project, to provide that post-hoc history. The open-endedness…
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Maybe the movie was successful because we could relate to Hoffman, while Redford (probably the handsomest actor ever) being rejected was not relatable.
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Here is my hot take. His belief that he was failing, helped him succeed.I don't mean this in a trite way. The character portrayed is supposed to be awkward and anxious. Feeling awkward and anxious in real life, left him in the right frame of mind when he walked on set. He looked awkward and anxious, because he actually was.Actually feeling what…
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For anyone not familiar with "The Graduate" or wants a refreshed, this analysis by Steven Benedict is as good as anyway:https://www.stevenbenedict.ie/2012/12/the-graduate/(9 minute audio essay.)