{"id":692892,"date":"2026-07-15T11:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692892\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:43:12","slug":"the-1979-movie-that-led-to-meryl-streep-and-dustin-hoffmans-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692892\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1979 movie that led to Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman’s feud"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kramer<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Columbia Pictures<\/p>\n

Wed 15 July 2026 8:27, UK <\/p>\n

The film might have been called Kramer vs Kramer, but should they ever make a behind-the-scenes documentary, then they may well want to call it Hoffman vs Streep. <\/p>\n

Although the movie went on to win a whopping five Academy Awards, including \u2018Best Picture\u2019 and \u2018Best Actor\u2019 and \u2018Best Actress\u2019 in a leading role for Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep<\/a> respectively, the success of the 1980s flick did not come easily. The production was underpinned by an uncomfortable tension that soon became problematic.<\/p>\n

Streep has since won three Oscars, but the first was very much the most costly. The synopsis for 1979\u2019s Kramer vs Kramer<\/a> reads: \u201cAfter his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple\u2019s young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story filled with pain and unaddressed issues that suddenly arise. Clearly, some of that tension spilt over onto the set.<\/p>\n

The problems first came to the fore when Streep got a late amendment made to the script approved by writer-director Robert Benton<\/a> in order to give it a more progressive approach. She wanted her character to be given more of a chance to explain why she had abandoned her family. She even later wrote Joanna Kramer\u2019s pivotal courtroom monologue herself, giving the character a voice that had been largely absent from the original screenplay.<\/p>\n

\"Kramer<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Columbia Pictures<\/p>\n

Apparently, these alterations angered Hoffman, who had already prepared for the scene in its original context and, growing weary with the delays and tweaks, he reportedly yelled: \u201cMeryl, why don\u2019t you stop carrying the flag for feminism and just act the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Hoffman famously clashed with Streep in a literal sense soon after, as Streep told The New York Times<\/a>, \u201cThis was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me.\u201d This famously made its way into the final cut into the movie documenting spousal abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incident itself was patently condemnable, but Streep also questioned its inclusion. \u201cAnd you see it in the movie,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was overstepping.\u201d<\/p>\n

This troubling story is indicative of Hollywood\u2019s problem of stars \u2018staying in character\u2019, as Robert Pattinson recently identified: \u201cI always say people who do method acting, you only ever see people do the method when they\u2019re playing assholes,\u201d the recent The Batman star opined. <\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cYou never see someone being lovely to everyone while they\u2019re really deep in character.\u201d As anyone who has ever worked in the film industry will tell you, there is an unerring ring of truth to that. Sometimes method acting might simply seem pretentious and mildly amusing, but there is a darker side to it, too. <\/p>\n

At the time, when Kramer vs Kramer was being filmed, Hoffman was getting a divorce in real life. This blurred the line of fiction when he came to work to act as an angry man in the midst of a troubling split. \u201cI\u2019m sure I was acting out on her [Streep] throughout the movie,\u201d he told the Huffington Post. \u201cStuff that I was feeling toward the wife that I was divorcing in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a young upstart, beyond the infamous slap, Streep reportedly bore the brunt of his surly attitude on set and the pari frequently clashed. Hoffman later apologised for any misconduct during this period and stated, \u201cI have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am.\u201d While most actors since this troubling period have reflected positively on their time working with Hoffman, the slap and frosty tension that the incident led to have proven hard to forget for Streep.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, increasingly, actions are being taken to mitigate such incidents on set. As Streep said of her recent experiences and the progressive trend: \u201cBut I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they\u2019re not politically corrected; they\u2019re fixed.\u201d <\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cThey will be fixed, because people won\u2019t accept it anymore. So that\u2019s a good thing.\u201d However, having spoken to others in the industry personally, measures need to be accelerated further still to make filmmaking safer for all.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Columbia Pictures Wed 15 July 2026 8:27, UK The film might have been called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[42201,173019,6491,114916,96,230608,10557,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-1970s","tag-173019","tag-celebrities","tag-dustin-hoffman","tag-entertainment","tag-kramer-vs-kramer","tag-meryl-streep","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}