Matthew Rhys had Dustin Hoffman sitting in the audience while he played Benjamin Braddock in a London production of The Graduate. For the then-26-year-old actor, that seemed likely to end with one particularly memorable visitor backstage. It did not.
Rhys revisited the encounter on the September 17th episode of Richard Bacon’s Why Are You More Successful Than Me? podcast. Hoffman originated Benjamin in Mike Nichols’ 1967 film, and Rhys said Hoffman’s decision to leave without coming backstage bothered him “wildly.”
Rhys remembered immediately turning the unexplained absence into a judgment on himself, wondering whether Hoffman had disliked his performance. He also acknowledged that the older actor might simply have had a dinner or another commitment waiting.
The story dates to Rhys’s 2000 West End run opposite Kathleen Turner, but his expectations had been shaped by what happened after other performances. Famous audience members regularly appeared backstage to see Turner, sometimes even when she did not know them personally. By the time Hoffman arrived, Rhys thought he understood the ritual.
Hoffman Came to the Show, Then Left
Rhys recalled learning that Hoffman was in the audience at London’s Gielgud Theatre and expecting that the two actors who had played Benjamin Braddock would finally meet afterward. “He didn’t come backstage,” Rhys said during the full podcast episode.
When Bacon asked whether that bothered him, Rhys answered, “Wildly.” His mind immediately went to his own performance. “I just thought he must have sat there going, ‘Well, he was s—,’” Rhys said, before explaining that the reaction reflected an actor’s insecurity.
Rhys even supplied a less dramatic possibility himself. Hoffman could simply have had a dinner he needed to get to. But at the time, Rhys said, he convinced himself that there was something about his performance Hoffman disliked enough to avoid coming backstage. Entertainment Weekly said it contacted Hoffman’s representative for comment but had not received an explanation for why he left.
Kathleen Turner Had Made Backstage Visits Feel Normal
Part of Rhys’s disappointment came from what he had already experienced while working with Turner. “It was my first introduction to and I’d never experienced this, famous people, whether they know other famous people or not, will come backstage,” he told Bacon.
Rhys remembered Turner telling him when someone notable was in the audience and inviting him to join her afterward for Champagne. Tom Hanks was one example he gave in the new interview.
He has recalled more names while telling the same story in earlier interviews. During a 2023 appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Rhys said Michael Douglas and James Coburn had also been among the celebrity visitors who came backstage during the run.
Rhys had spent months watching the backstage routine play out, and this time the visitor was the actor whose performance had defined Benjamin Braddock on film.
The production itself was one of Rhys’s biggest early jobs. Terry Johnson’s stage adaptation opened at the Gielgud Theatre on April 5th, 2000, following previews that began March 24th, with Turner as Mrs. Robinson, Rhys as Benjamin and Kelly Reilly as Elaine, according to Playbill.
Rhys Had Told the Hoffman Story Before
During a March 2023 appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Rhys explained that he knew Hoffman was attending a matinee and immediately expected the familiar post-show invitation to Turner’s dressing room. It never came. “Devastated. Absolutely devastated,” Rhys said when Eisen asked how he took it. “Never, it’s never quite been the same for me since.”
He described hoping for a “paternal nod” from Hoffman, some indication from the actor who had originated the role that he had done well.
Rhys also told a version of the story during a 2023 appearance on Happy Sad Confused. There, he again remembered waiting for Hoffman and deciding that the actor either hated the performance or had noticed places where Rhys had borrowed from his interpretation of Benjamin.
‘The Graduate’ Did Not Make Rhys Feel Secure for Long
For a young actor, starring opposite Kathleen Turner in a major West End production could easily have looked like the beginning of a steady rise. Rhys initially thought so too.
“It was after The Graduate that I had my longest stretch out of work,” he told The Guardian earlier this year. “I thought I’d made it, and then I was like, ‘Nope.’”
His prospects became bleak enough that he applied to join the British Army. Rhys has said a recruiting officer became suspicious after seeing acting jobs listed on his résumé and apparently wondered whether he was researching a role.
The Army rejected him. Rhys has joked that after months of unsuccessful auditions, receiving another rejection, this time from the military, felt particularly fitting.
His career eventually moved in a very different direction. He went on to major television roles in Brothers & Sisters, The Americans and Perry Mason, among other projects.
By the time the Richard Bacon episode was released, the contrast with that post-Graduate uncertainty was particularly stark. Three days earlier, Rhys had won two lead-acting Emmys on the same night: comedy for Widow’s Bay and limited or anthology series or movie for The Beast in Me.
Combined with his 2018 drama win for The Americans, those awards made Rhys the first performer in Emmy history to win lead acting prizes across drama, comedy and limited-series categories.