Almost 60 years after The Graduate was released, Dustin Hoffman has revealed that making the 1967 film that launched his career was “a terrible experience” and he felt “immediately uncomfortable, unworthy” as a Jewish actor playing “the ultimate Wasp”, Ben Braddock.

In an essay for the New Yorker , drawn from his upcoming memoir Look at Me, which was co-written with New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy, the 89-year-old actor wrote: “The Graduate exacerbated all my insecurities from the start.

“Here I was, playing a starring role in a movie by Mike Nichols , who was the director of the moment, but I felt like I had no right to be there. I didn’t even want to try out for the part.”

Hoffman was a successful theatre actor when Nichols expressed interest in him.…