Dustin Hoffman Recalls Barbra Streisand Setting Him Straight After He Claimed They Cleaned Toilets Together: ‘I Never Cleaned Toilets!’

Lily BrownWed, November 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Dustin Hoffman; Barbra StreisandCredit: JC Olivera/Getty; Jason Merritt/Getty -

Dustin Hoffman recalls being moved to tears by Barbra Streisand’s 1961 television debut at age 19

The longtime friends played Ben Stiller’s free-spirited parents in 2004’s Meet the Fockers

Hoffman’s memoir Look at Me is available now, ahead of Focker-In-Law’s Nov. 25 release

Dustin Hoffman thought he and Barbra Streisand had a dirty little secret from their early days in New York City. However, Streisand remembers things a little differently.

In his newly released memoir, Look at Me, Hoffman, 89, looks back on his early days as an aspiring actor in New York City, including his unexpected connection to Streisand, 84, whom he first encountered through a mutual friend decades before they became Hollywood costars.

Hoffman recalled dating a woman named Elaine Sobel, whom he met at the Theatre Studio. According to The Graduate star, Sobel was good friends with the Funny Girl actress, who was just beginning to make a name for herself as a singer at a nightclub called the Bon Soir near Washington Square Park.

Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand onstage during the 77th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 27, 2005Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty

Although Hoffman never went to see Streisand perform at the club, he did get an early glimpse of her talent when he watched her make her television debut on PM East with Mike Wallace in 1961.

At the time, Streisand was just 19 years old. Hoffman remembered her bantering with Wallace in what he described as a heightened Brooklyn accent while chewing several sticks of gum.

When Wallace eventually asked if she wanted to sing, Streisand responded, “Yeah, why not,” before removing a wad of gum from her mouth and launching into a performance that left Hoffman emotional.

“I was transfixed,” he wrote. “I didn’t realize at first that I was crying... I was totally overwhelmed by her brilliance.”

But it was a different memory from their early years that eventually led to a funny disagreement between the longtime friends.

Hoffman explained that he couldn’t afford the fees for his classes at the Theatre Studio, so he paid for them by cleaning the toilets. Assuming the arrangement was something everyone did, he later mistakenly suggested that he and Streisand had shared the chore when they reunited decades later to promote Meet the Fockers.

“I must’ve told an interviewer that Barbra Streisand and I used to clean the same toilets,” he recalled.

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Streisand was quick to correct him.

“‘I never cleaned toilets!’ Barbra told me indignantly,” Hoffman wrote.

The actress also sent him a handwritten note following their time working together on the 2004 comedy, which he said he still keeps.

“It was great to ‘riff’ with you... I loved being your on-screen wife,” she wrote.

Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Barbra Streisand, Teri Polo and Blythe Danner in ‘Meet The Fockers’Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

Hoffman added that he and Streisand made a certain cinematic sense as a couple in Meet the Fockers, noting that they do have some things in common. He even found a connection in a line from Streisand’s own memoir, in which she reflected on the attention her appearance received throughout her career.

“‘Sometimes,” Streisand wrote, “it felt like my nose got more press than I did.”

“I can relate,” Hoffman added.

In Meet the Fockers, the 2004 sequel to Meet the Parents, Hoffman and Streisand played Bernie and Roz Focker, the free-spirited parents of Ben Stiller’s Greg. Their characters’ unconventional parenting style and easygoing approach to life provided a comedic contrast to Robert De Niro’s more intimidating Jack Byrnes.

The pair returned for the 2010 sequel, Little Fockers, reprising their roles alongside Stiller, 60, De Niro, 83, and Teri Polo.

Look at Me is available now, wherever books are sold. The next Meet the Parents movie, Focker-In-Law, is in theaters Nov. 25.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”