Meryl Streep Recalls Dustin Hoffman Slapping Her in ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’

When Meryl Streep was filming 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer, the actress had a rather unpleasant experience on her first day of shooting, revealing co-star Dustin Hoffman slapped her during the first take of their first scene together.

Streep shared the story in an interview with the New York Times, explaining that she felt the actor was “overstepping.”

“This is tricky because when you’re an actor, you’re in a scene, you have to feel free,” she said. “I’m sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes. But there’s a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie.”

“It was overstepping,” she continued. “But I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they’re not politically corrected; they’re fixed. They will be fixed, because people won’t accept it anymore. So that’s a good thing.”

The story was previously detailed in a story last year in Vanity Fair, and Hoffman is currently facing multiple claims of sexual misconduct.

In the Times story, Streep also discussed the wave of sexual harassment allegations being leveled against powerful men today, sharing that while she has experienced things in her past, she wants to move forward and find a way for men to respect women rather than bringing up her own history.

“I was really beaten up, but I don’t want to ruin somebody’s mature life,” she said. “I just don’t. I do think if the world is going to go on, we have to find out a way to work together, and know that it’s better for men if they respect us deeply as equals.”

Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures