John Oliver speaks out about his confrontation with Dustin Hoffman about the actor's sexual misconduct allegations.
- John Oliver said his exchange with Dustin Hoffman over the actor's sexual misconduct allegations "just made me feel sad."
- The "Last Week Tonight" host said he "tried and failed" to have the conversation lead to something constructive.
John Oliver spoke out about his confrontation with Dustin Hoffman over the sexual misconduct allegations against the actor, and he had some interesting reflections.
The "Last Week Tonight" host did an interview on Sky One's "The Russell Howard Hour," and talked about his exchange earlier this month with Hoffman, which occurred at a panel discussion for a 20th anniversary screening of "Wag the Dog."
“I had spoken to the organizers of this event twice before when it was clear he might be there,” Oliver said. “I said, ‘If he is going to be there, I have to ask him about this. I understand you might not want your event to be about this, so you might want to get someone else,’ and they said ‘No, no, we want you to do it.’ Then when he confirmed, I said, ‘I am going to ask him.’"
Oliver said he went into the event wanting the conversation with Hoffman to be constructive, but looking back on it now he said he "tried and failed" at that.
At the panel discussion, Oliver told Hoffman at one point that Hoffman's response to a November Hollywood Reporter guest column by Anna Graham Hunter — who alleged that Hoffman groped and sexually harassed her on the set of the 1985 movie "Death Of A Salesman" when she was 17 — didn't "feel self-reflective in the way that it seems the incident demands."
"Do you believe this stuff that you're reading?" Hoffman responded to Oliver.
"I believe what she wrote, yes," Oliver replied, "because there's no point in her lying."
“Well, there is a point in her not bringing this up for 40 years," Hoffman said.
“Oh, Dustin. Christ," Oliver said.
“It felt unavoidable and that we had to have a discussion about it,” Oliver told Howard about his conversation with Hoffman. “It wasn’t ideal that it became such a big media story because 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.”
Since Oliver's confrontation with Hoffman, more women have accused Hoffman of sexual misconduct, including actress Kathryn Rossetter, who alleged the actor would grope her on a nightly basis while the two acted in the 1983 Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman."
Watch Oliver's comments about the Hoffman confrontation: