John Oliver opens up about confronting Dustin Hoffman about sexual harassment allegations

Oliver was being interviewed by Russell Howard on The Russell Howard Hour, when Howard congratulated him on confronting the actor. Hoffman has been accused of sexually harassing Anna Graham-Hunter, a 17 year old production assistant, on the set of his 1985 TV film Death of a Salesman. Oliver confronted the Oscar-winner during a Tribeca Institute 20th anniversary panel and screening of 1997 film Wag the Dog.

“This is something we’re going to have to talk about because... it’s hanging in the air,” Oliver said to Hoffman at the panel. The host went on to criticise Hoffman's original apology in which the actor claimed the behaviour was not reflective of who he is.

“It’s that part of the response to this stuff that pisses me off," Oliver stated. "It is reflective of who you were. You’ve given no evidence to show that it didn’t happen. There was a period of time when you were a creeper around women. It feels like a cop-out to say, ‘Well, this isn’t me.’ Do you understand how that feels like a dismissal?”

Hoffman vehemently defended his behaviour and accused Oliver of “making a very quick judgement."

Speaking to Russell Howard about the confrontation at the Wag the Dog panel, Oliver said that he “felt it was unavoidable.”

“I had spoken to the organisers of this event twice before, when it was clear he might be there,” Oliver revealed. “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.’ So it was a collision course was set at that point. I felt like I had to bring it up, I knew the stories were out there and I knew there were a few more coming. It felt unavoidable and that we had to have a discussion about it. It wasn’t ideal but it became such a big story – but it became about my questions rather than his answers. But the questions weren’t particularly remarkable, but his answers were kind of, 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.”

“It’s better that you did it, rather than if you hadn’t,” Howard interjected.

“Well, that’s true,” conceded Oliver. “I just wanted it to become something more constructive but it was clear pretty early on that that was not going to happen. I did try. I tried and failed!”

Since the confrontation with Oliver, Hoffman has also been accused of assaulting two women, and exposing himself to a minor, Cori Thomas, who has a school friend of his daughter.

Watch the interaction between John Oliver and Dustin Hoffman below.