Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) on Netflix
Ted Kramer is a New York advertising executive whose work comes before his family. After eight years of marriage, his wife Joanna leaves him, and their son Billy stays with Ted.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.8/10168,197 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Joanna Kramer has been married to Ted for eight years. Ted is a New York advertising executive who puts his career first, and Joanna stays home with their son Billy. When Ted tells her he has landed an important account and a promotion, she announces that she is leaving him, and she goes without Billy because she feels unfit to be a mother. Ted takes over the school run and the household chores, and Billy misses Joanna. Ted's boss Jim O'Connor tells him the Mid-Atlantic Airlines account cannot suffer. Billy worries that his mother left because of him, and Ted explains that Joanna was unhappy in the marriage. Margaret Phelps, a divorced neighbor who had been Joanna's confidante, becomes a friend to Ted.
Cast
- Jack Ramageas Spencer
- Jess Osunaas Ackerman
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dustin Hoffman was the only actor Stanley R. Jaffe and Robert Benton envisioned in the lead role of Ted Kramer, but Hoffman, going through a divorce, turned it down and wanted to quit film acting for the stage; James Caan was then offered the role and refused, concerned the film would be a flop.
- Kate Jackson was offered the role of Joanna Kramer but had to turn it down because producer Aaron Spelling could not rearrange the shooting schedule of Charlie's Angels; the part was then offered to Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda and Ali MacGraw before Meryl Streep was cast.
- Meryl Streep was initially cast as Phyllis, the role eventually taken by JoBeth Williams, but she forced her way into auditioning for Joanna in front of Hoffman, Benton and Jaffe and was cast in the lead instead.
- Benton encouraged Justin Henry, who was seven years old and cast as Billy, to improvise, and the ice cream scene in which Billy defies Ted by skipping dinner and eating ice cream was all improvised by Hoffman and Henry.
- Gail Strickland was first cast as Ted's neighbor Margaret but departed after a week of filming, which Columbia Pictures put down to "artistic differences"; Michael Schulman claims filming with Hoffman left her with a stammer, while Strickland says she could not quickly memorize lines Hoffman improvised and was fired two days later.
- Such was Hoffman's commitment to method acting that he shattered a wine glass against the wall without telling Streep, informing only the cameraman beforehand to keep shooting; shards flew into her hair and she answered, "Next time you do that, I'd appreciate you letting me know."
- In 2018 Streep said that Hoffman slapped her hard without warning while filming a scene, on the first take of her first film, adding that the slap is in the finished film and that it was "overstepping".
