Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man) just wanted to say one word to the huge crowd that came out to see him at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic on Saturday: Plastics.
Sorry, I got carried away there by the famous line from the iconic The Graduate, a special screening of which Hoffman introduced on Saturday. No, the Hollywood legend had quite a bit more to say to an adoring audience in the Grand Hall of the Hotel Thermal, the legendary “headquarters” of the Czech festival, which welcomed him with a rousing standing ovation.
Asked how he got cast in The Graduate, Hoffman replied: “It was an accident. Mike Nichols was the director of the moment. He was like Steven Spielberg today.” But the filmmaker faced a casting challenge. “He had spent almost two years looking for this person that was to be the graduate, and after two years, I know this because he wrote it later in his autobiography: he was willing to say we can’t make it, and he was going to not make the film.”
Lucky timing then? “Literally, the last day he was going to see people, it was my turn and Katharine Ross’ turn,” the actor recalled. “Had we been there two years before, we would not have gotten the role.”
