Dustin Hoffman: True Confessions

Dustin Hoffman was born August 8, 1937. He was a slow starter.

As a young man, Dustin attended Los Angeles High School. He described himself as “unpopular, unattractive, shortest kid in class, and kind of a misfit.”

He wasn’t a jock, and never hung out with the guys. “I never felt an identity growing up but I didn’t know that I didn’t feel an identity. I just didn’t feel right. When I started taking acting classes there was a connection.”

“Looking back on it now”, he adds, “I only knew who I was when I was being someone else.”

The “rewards” of success.

After the success of The Graduate, in 1967, Dustin confessed he went on a sex binge.

He admitted that he was addicted to having sex in public places, like the Studio 54 club in New York, and says he also enjoyed threesomes. "I met a couple of girls in bed more than once.”

He described those years as "the candy-store years because there were drugs, stardom, the Pill.”

Dustin also confessed that he tried cocaine - but had to stop because he was allergic to it.

He said: "I couldn't breathe for weeks afterwards."

First sexual experience.

Dustin revealed how he lost his virginity to an older woman who had mistaken him for his brother. .

His first sexual experience was cut short when the woman – who was 20 and was five years older than Dustin - realized “in horror” that she was not making love to his older brother, Ronny.

"I jumped off her, stark naked, and left the room.

I wound up in the living room, and guys were sitting around having beer and talking, and I was naked.

This may have been the beginning of my acting career without my knowing it, because they stood up and applauded - and I liked the applause."

Condom talk.

“My oldest son, Jake, who is twenty-three, loves to tell this story about our condom talk.

I had lectured in a UCLA class on a Saturday and when I left there was a biology class in session next door. On the door was a carton of free condoms, and I stole it. Actually, I said to the instructor, since I’m not getting paid for the lecture can I have this instead? He said, ‘Sure, take ’em.’ And I took off.

I came home, went to Jake’s bedroom where he was lying on his bed talking on the phone. He said, ‘Hey Dad, what’s up?’ I just walked over and spilled all of them on his head—hundreds of condoms!”

Spirit and life force.

“I am a sexual being and I dispute the way society views sex. I think they compartmentalize it. Sex has to do with spirit and life force.”

“Whether you’re gay, bisexual, or straight—I don’t care what combos you want to put in there—sex is a good thing. And God bless everybody, and may they come off the charts any which way they can! Just protect yourself,” (referring to condoms)

Risk equals excitement.

Dustin explains, “In terms of sex, I think there’s always been a correlation between sex and danger. Before HIV there was the risk of getting a girl pregnant and playing that game was a part of the excitement, especially during the teen years.”

He continued, “I don’t think that has subsided in today’s world. It’s the same with smoking and drinking. There’s a danger. It’s a flaw in the human makeup. We take on that which scares the shit out of us.”

Now for something really kinky.

Dustin says his lucky socks are one of his cherished possessions. “I have different pairs, some have question marks, and some have nutty faces. They’re funny. I found them in Paris, and they are my Achilles’ Socks. If I need good luck, or fly in an airplane, I wear my lucky socks.”

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