One of the most memorable numbers of Frank Oz’s 1986 film “Little Shop of Horrors” is Steve Martin’s “Dentist!,” a song in which Martin’s sadistic dentist character Orin Scrivello enjoys inflicting pain on everyone from his patients to his staff.
One of those staff is Miriam Margolyes, the legendary British actress/comedian famous for speaking her mind, whose nurse character gets both punched and has a door slammed in her face in the scene.
Recently she wrote a new memoir “Oh Miriam! Stories from an Extraordinary Life” in which she revealed her memory of filming the sequence and says:
“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 added that Martin was “undeniably brilliant… but horrid to me”. Martin subsequently provided a statement to Variety late yesterday, objecting to Margolyes’ implication she was physically harmed:
“When I first read Mariam Margolyes pejorative account of our scene in ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ I was surprised. My memory is that we had a good communication as professional actors. But when it is implied that I harmed her or was in some way careless about doing the stunts, I have to object.
I remember taking EXTREME caution regarding the fake punch – the same caution I would use with any similar scene. She assured me she felt fine, and we did a few successful takes and stopped. There was never any physical contact between her and me, accidental or otherwise, in this scene or any other we shot.”
Martin’s representatives also offered a statement from director Frank Oz, who concurred with Martin’s take:
“I always rehearse physical actions in slow motion. The scene was supposed to include a fake punch. It’s puzzling what she’s talking about. It’s not the Steve I know or anyone knows. He’s always been professional and respectful of everyone on all of my shoots.”
Margolyes has been vocal in the past about working with rude actors, famously revealing on a podcast last year she disliked working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on “End of Days” because he allegedly farted on her face in between filming takes. Schwarzenegger never commented on the allegation.
