Three of the five woman who have accused Dustin Hoffman of sexual misconduct allegations spoke out in their first televised interview Monday on NBC Nightly News.
“I’ve been lying for 34 years,” Rossetter shared during the broadcast. “People go, ‘How is it to work with Dustin?’ And I tell the half-truth, which is, as an actor working with him, I owe him everything.” (RELATED: Dustin Hoffman Accused Of Sexually Harassing A 17-Year-Old Girl)
“I learned so much,” she added. “And then I would stop and there would always be a knot in my stomach about what the real truth was, which is he was abusive and he was a bully.”
The actress alleged that when the two worked together on the Broadway show “Death of a Salesman,” the actor repeatedly assaulted her backstage by putting his hand on her thigh every night before they went on-stage and groped her breasts when they posed for pictures.
“I felt his hand go up — up my thigh,” Rossetter said. “One day he actually tried to penetrate me with his fingers. And I was like — I was told to suck it up. He was the most famous actor in the world. It was the top of his career. I was a nobody. Nobody was going to believe me.”
“I don’t think we should feel sorry for him, he’s fine,” Rossetter said when asked about people who feel sorry for him. “We have a culture of celebrity. And just because you’re good at sports or music or acting doesn’t mean that you’re a completely integrated, fabulous human being. Your humanity is different than your work. That might be part of [Hoffman’s] tragedy. He brings so much humanity to his work and he hasn’t quite gotten it completely in his life.”
Rossetter was interviewed along with two other women 00 Corri Thomas and Anna Graham Hunter — all three of whom have previously shared their stories alleging sexual misconduct by Hoffman.
Thomas described what happened whens she met Hoffman when she was 16 years old after she spent the day with him and his daughter, who she was friends with. She said it was a great day until she was left alone with the “Rain Man” star who allegedly took a shower and then dropped his towel. She said he then got on the bed and asked her to give him a foot massage.
Hunter was the first woman to speak out against the actor last month when she accused Hoffman of sexually harassing her multiple times on the set of a 1985 TV movie when she was a 17-year-old intern.