‘Harry Potter’ Actor Miriam Margolyes Says Steve Martin Was ‘Horrid,’ ‘Unlovely and Unapologetic’ on ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ Set

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Miriam Margolyes writes in her new memoir, “Oh Miriam! Stories from an Extraordinary Life,” that Steve Martin was “horrid” to her on the set of Frank Oz’s 1986 “Little Shop of Horrors” movie musical (via HuffPo UK).

Martin played the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, while Margolyes, best known these days for playing Professor Sprout in the “Harry Potter” film series, starred as his character’s assistant.

They shared a musical number, “Dentist!,” in which his character slams a door in her face. Apparently he did so for real. “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,” Margolyes writes. “Perhaps he was method acting – and [I] came home grumpy with a splitting headache.” While Margolyes calls Martin “undeniably brilliant,” she adds, “but horrid to me….Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of Art.” Variety has reached out to Martin’s representative for comment.

On the contrary, Buscemi was a wonderful actor to work with on 1993’s “Ed And His Dead Mother.” “Steve Buscemi is a brilliant actor and we had a delightful rapport,” Margolyes writes. “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.” Margolyes has been vocal in the past about working with rude actors.