John Oliver has spoken out about his now-famous confrontation with Dustin Hoffman, saying that he has some regrets about the encounter and is sorry that he sucked up a lot of the focus on sexual assault allegations in Hollywood.
Speaking on the UK’s Russell Howard Hour, Oliver said he doesn’t think the discussion resulted in anything productive.
It wasn’t ideal that it became such a big media story. Because then it became about my questions instead of his answers. My questions weren’t particularly remarkable; his answers were kind of not great. So I think that was really the point of it. But it didn’t go anywhere constructive, so the whole thing just made me feel sad
Howard told Oliver that he thought it was productive, as it forced Hoffman to confront the elephant in the room instead of just ignoring it, as we’ve come to expect of men in Hollywood who have been subject to allegations of this nature.
“I just wanted it to become more constructive, but it was clear early on that wasn’t going to happen,” Oliver replied. “I tried and failed.”
Hoffman has been accused of several instances of sexual misconduct over the past few months, including allegations he sexually harassed a 17-year-old on the set of 1985 TV film Death of a Salesman, and exposed himself to an underage girl.
Oliver was widely praised after he confronted Hoffman on stage, forcing him to address the allegations – which at that point did not include some of the more serious ones. It was considered a praiseworthy move, especially in an era where it was becoming clearer and clearer that many men in media and entertainment were complicit or silent when confronted with allegations of abuse in their ranks.
But this raises an interesting point: did this achieve anything? It certainly made it hard for Hoffman to use his new projects as a PR exercise, that’s for sure. But it’s clear Oliver doesn’t quite agree.
