John Oliver thinks that he "failed" when he confronted Dustin Hoffman earlier this year.
On a recent appearance on The Russell Howard Hour on Sky One, the late-night show host on HBO was asked about the controversial conversation with the two-time Academy Award-winning actor a few months back. To recall, when Oliver and Hoffman were in attendance at the Wag the Dog 20th anniversary panel discussion, the television personality brought up the sexual misconduct allegations made by multiple women. Hoffman was obviously uncomfortable with the questioning.
Oliver thinks that the conversation did not go as planned.
"It felt unavoidable and that we had to have a discussion about it," the Emmy Award-winning host explained. "It wasn't ideal but it became such a big story — but it became about my questions rather than his answers. The questions weren't particularly remarkable, but his answers were ... not great. That was the point of it. But it didn't really go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing just made me feel sad."
Oliver also revealed that he was given permission by event organizers to question Hoffman on-stage.
Hoffman's Murky Past
In November, Hoffman was accused of sexually harassing an actress when she was a minor. In a column for The Hollywood Reporter, Anna Graham Hunter recounted her experience with the actor while working on the set of Death of a Salesman in 1985.
Hoffman, she claimed, groped her and made sexually charged comments. She initially loved the attention, until she did not.
Emboldened by Hunter's admission, more women came out to tell their own sexual harassment story involving the The Graduate star. Cori Thomas, a friend of Hoffman's daughter, said that the actor exposed himself to her when she was 16 years old.
During the conversation with Oliver, Hoffman denied the accusations made by Hunter. He also accused the late-night host of making assumptions against him without the facts.
"I still don't know who this woman is," the award-winning actor reiterated. "I never met her. If I met her it was in concert with other people."
Oliver further commented that he found Hoffman's apology to be lacking. The British comedian pointed out that the actor's insistence that the action was not reflective of his personality seemed like a cop-out.
The panel, which also featured Robert De Niro, director Barry Levinson, and producer Jane Rosenthal, was enveloped by the discussion regarding the sexual harassment allegations.
While many applauded Oliver's bravado to confront Hoffman on-stage, many also criticized him for publicly grilling the actor at an event. Alec Baldwin criticized Oliver and fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert for acting like grand juries.
Talk shows were once promotional pit stops for some blithe chit chat about movies, etc. Now the likes of @iamjohnoliver and @StephenAtHome have flipped that and they are beginning to resemble grand juries.
— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) December 6, 2017
