However, beyond Hoffman’s worries about his ability to play Ben, he also writes that Nichols was “frequently sour” on set, a “shocking, destabilizing” change from his personality during rehearsals. “I often felt that I was about to be fired. When we were shooting some of the film’s most famous sequences, I remember thinking, I have no fucking idea what I’m doing,” said Hoffman.
The following day, Hoffman shot an underwater scene that required him to stay submerged in a scuba suit. “When I came up for air after a few takes, there was blood trickling out of my ear. Between all the slapping during the previous day and all the water pressure at the bottom of the pool, I’d punctured an eardrum,” he writes.
