Three women who have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual misconduct are amplifying their voices.
Cori Thomas, Anna Graham Hunter and actress Kathryn Rossetter appeared in a joint interview on NBC Nightly News on Monday in which they shared their stories of Hoffman’s alleged predatory behavior and abuse of power.
“As hard as it is, I think that I wanted to choose truth over shame,” said Thomas, who claims that Hoffman exposed himself to her when she was 16.
According to Thomas, in 1980 she spent one of “the greatest days of [her] life” with the actor and one of his daughters, who was her friend. Things took a stark turn when Thomas was left alone with Hoffman later that day while waiting for her parents to pick her up. She said the actor came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and then dropped it.
“I had never seen a man naked in my life at this point,” she told NBC.
Hoffman then allegedly asked her for a foot massage and kept telling her, “You know I’m naked.”
Hunter, who came forward with accusations against Hoffman in November, said the actor sexually harassed her on the set of his 1985 TV adaptation of “Death of a Salesman” when she was a 17-year-old intern.
She said that Hoffman groped and humiliated her. According to Hunter, one morning Hoffman gave her an offensive and vulgar breakfast order in front of others.
“And he just stared at me and everyone burst out laughing,” she said.
She then went to the bathroom and cried.
Rossetter acted alongside Hoffman in “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway in 1984. She said he continually harassed and assaulted her throughout the production’s run. In one disturbing instance, Rossetter said that Hoffman tried to penetrate her with his fingers backstage.
“I was told to suck it up,” Rossetter told NBC. “He was the most famous actor in the world — it was the top of his career. I was a nobody. No one was going to believe me.”
She added:
People go, “How is it to work with Dustin?” And I tell the half-truth, which is, as an actor working with him, I owe him everything. I learned so much. And then I would stop and there would always be a knot in my stomach about what the real truth was, which is he was abusive and he was a bully.
According to NBC, Hoffman declined to comment on the joint interview. In November, he apologized to Hunter, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.”
Hoffman’s attorney has denied Thomas’ claim. He also denied assault allegations made by Melissa Kester and an anonymous woman, other accusers who did not appear on NBC. The attorney called their stories “defamatory falsehoods.”