“I just thought, he must have sat there going, ‘Well, he was s---,’” Rhys said, reflecting on his 2000 stage production of the film opposite Kathleen Turner.

Matthew Rhys was ‘wildly’ bothered by what Dustin Hoffman did after seeing him in The Graduate

“I just thought, he must have sat there going, ‘Well, he was s---,’” Rhys said, reflecting on his 2000 stage production of the film opposite Kathleen Turner.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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September 18, 2026 12:18 a.m. ET

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Matthew Rhys and Dustin Hoffman in 2026. Credit:

Amy Sussman/Getty; Cindy Ord/WireImage

- Matthew Rhys is revisiting a fateful near run-in during his time playing Benjamin Braddock in a West End adaptation of *The Graduate*.

- Dustin Hoffman, the actor who originated the role in the 1967 film, attended a performance in 2000, but Rhys says he didn’t come backstage.

- “I just thought he must have sat there going, ‘Well, he was s---,” Rhys reflected. “It’s every actor’s insecurity because we’re so wildly self-obsessed.”

Matthew Rhys still remembers peeking through the curtain at the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End and seeing Dustin Hoffman seated for a performance of *The Graduate*. It was 2000, and the 26-year-old Rhys would be playing the character Hoffman made famous in the original 1967 film. He was elated — a legendary star coming to hand out his seal of approval to a promising newcomer from the younger generation.

But things didn’t exactly turn out that way.

There’s a simple reason why, Rhys revealed on Wednesday’s episode of the *Why Are You More Successful Than Me?* podcast: “He didn’t come backstage.”

Kathleen Turner and Rhys in ‘The Graduate’ on London’s West End in 2000.

Peter Jordan - PA Images/PA Images via Getty

“It was my first introduction to — and I’d never experienced this — famous people, whether they know other famous people or not, will come backstage,” Rhys explained to host Richard Bacon.

British dramaturge Terry Johnson staged Mike Nichols’ iconic story of school days seduction on the West End in 2000, casting Kathleen Turner opposite Rhys in the role originally played by Anne Bancroft. It was Turner who made Rhys hip to backstage ways of the rich and famous.

“Kathleen Turner would be like, ‘Tom Hanks is in tonight. Come down for a glass of champagne.’ [I’d] go, ‘Oh, do you know him?’ She goes, ‘No. This is what they do. They just come backstage,’” he recalled. “At the end, Dustin Hoffman came. We’re like, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to come, he’ll come backstage!’ And he never came.”

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By 2000, Hoffman was well and fully a Hollywood legend. He’d racked up a whopping seven Oscar nominations and won two, for *Kramer vs. Kramer* and *Rain Man*. By 2026, Rhys has achieved a legendary status of his own. On Monday, he became the first person to win lead acting prizes in all three genres at the Emmys, after adding trophies for his performances in *The Beast in Me *(Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie) and *Widow’s Bay *(Lead Actor in a Comedy) to his 2018 win for *The Americans *(Lead Actor in a Drama).

But back in 2000, Rhys was still climbing, his biggest credit being a small part in the 1999 film *Titus*, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange.

Bacon asked if Hoffman’s decision to split rather than head backstage bothered Rhys, and he replied, “Wildly.”

“I just thought he must have sat there going, ‘Well, he was s---.’ What am I going to say to him? It’s every actor’s insecurity because we’re so wildly self-obsessed. He might just have had a dinner that he had to run to, but I was like, ‘There’s something about my performance he does not like that has warranted him not coming back.’”

* *has reached out to a representative for Hoffman for comment.

Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in ‘The Graduate’.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

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Snub or no snub, *The Graduate *proved a coup for the young Rhys, who would immediately win parts in the crime film *Shooters* and the romcom adventure *The Abduction Club*. It would be just a handful of years before he earned his first major screen role, as Kevin Walker on the ABC series *Brothers & Sisters*.

You can watch Rhys’ full interview on the *Why Are You More Successful Than Me?* podcast above.

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