Robert Redford, Jeanne Moreau, and others nearly changed the film completely.
The Big Picture One of the most iconic dramatic comedies of all time, The Graduate is a pitch-perfect examination of loneliness, uncertainty, and alienation in lost 20-somethings, and if director Mike Nichols' original plans worked out, we'd have ended up with an entirely different picture. The cast of The Graduate feels impeccably chosen: Dustin Hoffman's awkward, neurotic charm gives Benjamin Braddock a sort of complexity that is at once relatable and repulsive.
'The Graduate' Almost Missed Out on Dustin Hoffman Can you imagine The Graduate without Dustin Hoffman? There was once a pretty substantial list of actors intended to play Benjamin, and Hoffman wasn't on it. Among the list were Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, and Robert Redford, along with many others, but no Hoffman. The ideal casting list, compiled by Nichols and producer Larry Turman, was set for the main roles.
Don't get me wrong. Nicholson's certainly got the chops — and in '67 he was about to start a hell of a winning streak —but his unfiltered masculine bravado is too abrasive for Benjamin. He's cocky, charming, a bit too self-confident to play the awkward and an uncomfortable graduate. His turn in Five Easy Pieces is arguably his closest relation to Benjamin: Bobby is overflowing with angst, frustrated with his stagnant life.
According to Vanity Fair, also on the list for the role of Mrs. Robinson was Patricia Neal, Geraldine Page, Deborah Kerr, Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Shelley Winters, Eva Marie Saint, Ingrid Bergman, and Ava Gardner, among others. According to the Mike Nichols commentary on the Criterion Collection's The Graduate release, one of Nichols' first choice for the role was Jeanne Moreau, who would've...actually worked in the role.
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