Trivia / Kramer vs. Kramer

• Actor-Inspired Heroism: Meryl Streep found Joanna to be almost unrealistically evil in the initial script. She pushed for the more sympathetic take used in the eventual film.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Meryl Streep was actually to play Ted's one-night stand, while Kate Jackson would have played Joanna.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • A Vanity Fair article indicates that Dustin Hoffman put Meryl Streep through a lot of grief to get the right reactions during key scenes, which naturally infuriated Meryl, who didn't need him or anyone pulling this on her and could deliver the performance on her own merits.
  • Billy's crying is real. Robert Benton asked Justin Henry to think of a saddening memory before the take. According to the book The Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History, Henry "threw a raging tantrum".
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Meryl Streep was heavily pregnant in the final scene, hence the reason why Joanna is wearing a raincoat.
• Hostility on the Set: There was loads of hostility between the leads.
  • By all accounts, Dustin Hoffman has been widely reported in different media to have harassed Meryl Streep during the making of the movie, and the two had a contentious working relationship as a result. In a 1979 Time magazine interview, Streep claimed that Hoffman groped her breast on their first meeting. When Streep advocated for herself, wanting to portray Joanna as more sympathetic and vulnerable than she was written, she received pushback from him. Attributing the behaviour to his commitment to being a method actor, he would also hurl insults and obscenities at Streep, taunting her with the name of her recently deceased fiancé, John Cazale, claiming this was designed to draw a better performance out of her. He famously threw a wine glass against the wall without telling her (although he did inform the cameraman beforehand), which shattered and sent glass shards into her hair. Her response was: "Next time you do that, I'd appreciate you letting me know."
  • Hoffman was hearing lots of advance publicity about newcomer Streep and how she was mastering the role and Hoffman felt he was being upstaged. When Streep wanted to change around the dialogue in the restaurant meeting scene, Hoffman became furious. As Hoffman recalled, "I hated her guts. Yes, I hated her guts. But I respected her." He accepted that Streep wasn't arguing for what was best for her character but what was best for the movie. Streep decided never to work with Hoffman again after he hit her to get her into character.
  • The stars would often, jokingly, try to get Justin Henry to pick one of them over the other. One day on the set, Hoffman asked Henry who he'd rather be with. Henry said, "Her. She's nicer", to which Hoffman replied, "Oh yeah? Work with her five weeks then see what you say."
• The Other Marty: Gail Strickland, who was originally cast as the Kramers' neighbour Margaret, got so rattled by Dustin Hoffman's on-set behaviour that she developed a nervous stammer and had to be recast. (Her replacement, Jane Alexander, had played the Bookkeeper in All the President's Men and so was familiar with Hoffman.)
• Reality Subtext: Hoffman was going through a marital separation during filming, while Streep was dealing with the death of her fiancé John Cazale.
• Throw It In!: Hoffman and Justin Henry improvised the ice cream scene. Hoffman also improvised the bit where he slaps the wine glass against the wall.
• Wag the Director: Meryl Streep requested changes to her character, as she felt that the story was relying on the audience to understand why Joanna left without letting Joanna express it for herself. It was her belief that the character as written, in both the screenplay and the book, was too one-dimensional, an obvious villain for Ted and Billy to react to and change their lives accordingly.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The closing scene was to be Ted and Billy walking through the park, with the camera pulling back to show they are just one of hundreds of parent-child pairs enjoying a day outside, or Joanna and Ted getting on the elevator together, but this was nixed as everyone felt it would imply that they were reconciling.
  • François Truffaut was asked to direct the film, even with his regular cinematographer hired in anticipation, but Truffaut was busy with other projects, and turned down the movie, recommending the movie's screenwriter to direct.
  • Other contenders were Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and Susan Sarandon were considered for Joanna.
  • James Caan, Richard Dreyfuss, George Hamilton, Al Pacino, Roy Scheider, and Jon Voight were considered for Ted.
• Word of Saint Paul: Meryl Streep joked that she was sure once Billy became a teenager, Ted would send Billy back to Joanna.
• Written by Cast Member: Joanna's final speech in the courtroom, when she argues why she should have custody of Billy, was written by Streep herself after Robert Benton felt that the original version was too much like a man speaking for a woman.

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