LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES — Veteran actor Dustin Hoffman has recounted a frightening incident from his youth, revealing that he was once held at gunpoint after the husband of a woman he was having an affair with unexpectedly walked in on them.
The 89-year-old actor shared the story during an appearance on the November 9 episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien. The conversation formed part of Hoffman’s promotion for his memoir, Look at Me, which is being released on November 10, 2026.
According to People’s report of the interview, Hoffman told O’Brien that he had been involved with a married woman who believed her husband remained asleep after going to bed. She invited the actor over after her husband had apparently fallen asleep.
“I was having an affair with a married woman,” Hoffman recalled. “She thought that once her husband went to sleep, that he stayed asleep.”
Hoffman said the couple were together when the husband suddenly entered the room carrying a gun. The man pointed the weapon at him and ordered him to leave. The actor described the encounter as a moment when he genuinely feared he could be killed.
Explaining what it felt like to have a firearm aimed at him, Hoffman said the barrel appeared much larger than it actually was. He remembered watching the man’s finger on the trigger and imagining that the shot could come at any moment. As Entertainment Weekly also reported, Hoffman described thinking that he was about to die and said a person would do almost anything to avoid being killed.
O’Brien responded to the account with humour, joking about whether Hoffman had escaped through a window or somehow tried to continue the encounter. Hoffman’s answer made clear that the evening’s romantic plans were over after the husband’s arrival.
The actor did not identify the woman or her husband. He also did not provide an exact date or location for the incident, and the podcast conversation did not establish how he physically left the house. The account should therefore be understood as Hoffman’s recollection rather than a fully documented reconstruction of the event.
Memoir Revisits A Life In And Out Of Hollywood
The story emerged as Hoffman discusses Look at Me, a memoir written with journalist Ariel Levy. The book revisits the experiences that shaped his personal life and career, offering reflections on his rise from struggling performer to one of Hollywood’s most recognised actors. The publication is listed by Simon & Schuster, the book’s publisher.
Hoffman’s career changed dramatically with his performance as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967). He went on to star in films including Midnight Cowboy, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man and Hook. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man.
In a separate first-person essay published by The New Yorker while promoting the memoir, Hoffman also reflected on the difficult experience of making The Graduate, despite the film becoming the breakthrough that transformed his career. His recollections offer a more complicated view of a production often remembered as a defining success.
Hoffman’s story on the podcast adds another personal episode to the memoir’s wider portrait of his life. While the gunpoint encounter was brief in the interview, his description conveyed the lasting intensity of a moment in which he believed his life was in immediate danger.
Listen to the full conversation on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast.