Harry Potter’s Miriam Margolyes says Steve Martin was “horrid” to her while filming Little Shop of Horrors

Last Updated on September 29, 2023

English actress Miriam Margolyes is a veteran of many projects and has always been hilariously eccentric and inappropriate for someone who looks like a sweet grandmother. She also minces no words when it comes to working with actors who were acting rude, even to the faces of those who had close relationships with the said subjects. She’s openly criticized her encounter with the creator of the hit sitcom Friends to Matthew Perry’s face, as well as not enjoying Winona Ryder’s attitude when working with her on The Age of Innocence, although she maintains that Martin Scorsese was as sweet as can be.

The Harry Potter actress had released her memoir in which she bestows her inside experiences on the many TV and film productions she’s worked on. One of the stories she reveals was Steve Martin being a little too into his dentist role in 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors. Margolyes played his secretary who was unfortunately in his warpath without fail as the sadist makes his way through torturing people in his office. It’s one of the best scenes in the movie and an absolute classic performance by Martin. However, Margolyes’ experience behind the scenes didn’t exactly match the laughs.

Variety reveals via HuffPo UK that Margolyes wrote, “During my only musical number (‘Dentist!’) I was hit all day by doors opening in my face; repeatedly punched, slapped, and knocked down by an unlovely and unapologetic Steve Martin. Perhaps he was method acting – and [I] came home grumpy with a splitting headache.” She recognized that Martin was still amazing in the scene despite taking the brunt of his unpleasantness as she says he was “undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me….Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of Art.”

Steve Martin is a legacy in the comedy world, and nearly everyone he’s worked with has nothing but good things to say about him. However, there are vets of that era who are brilliant in their craft with known behind-the-scenes drama such as Chevy Chase and Bill Murray. Martin, though, hasn’t earned that kind of overwhelming reputation.

Inversely, Margolyes would glow about working with Steve Buscemi on 1993’s Ed and His Dead Mother, saying, “Steve Buscemi is a brilliant actor and we had a delightful rapport. For somebody who’s being terrorized by me in the form of a murderous living corpse, he was unerringly sweet – knocked spots off Steve Martin.”