Actor Kathryn Rossetter has alleged Dustin Hoffman repeatedly groped her during the 1983 Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman".
In a new essay published by The Hollywood Reporter, Rossetter, who played the mistress to Hoffman's Willy Loman in the production, said she idolised Hoffman upon her initial casting opposite him and enjoyed the experience of working with him until he invited her to his hotel room.
"That was the beginning of what was to become a horrific, demoralising and abusive experience at the hands (literally) of one of my acting idols," Rossetter said.
She alleged that from there Hoffman would behave inappropriately during nearly every performance, at times grabbing her breasts or groping the inside of her thighs.
"Six to eight shows a week. I couldn't speak to him in the moment because I was on a live mic. He kept it up and got more and more aggressive.
"...Night after night I went home and cried. I withdrew and got depressed and did not have any good interpersonal relationships with the cast," she wrote.
Rossetter added that Hoffman's groping would also happen at public events and, she claimed, he was "skilled" at avoiding being recorded or seen. One time she retaliated; in "a knee-jerk response built up over two years," she said
Representatives for Hoffman, 80, did not immediately respond to request for comment, but but his lawyers put the publication in touch with a handful people who worked on the "Death of a Salesman revival" and claimed to not witness the behaviour Rossetter described.
"It just doesn't ring true. Given my position, it's insulting to say this kind of activity would go on to the extent of sexual violation," production stage manager Tom Kelly said.
Rossetter's accusations are only the latest to be made against Hoffman. Anna Graham Hunter claimed last month that Hoffman groped her and made inappropriate remarks to her in 1985 on the set of the TV film "Death of a Salesman".
Subsequently, producer Wendy Riss Gatsiounis told Variety that Hoffman propositioned her inappropriately in 1991.
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