Miriam Margolyes says Steve Martin was ‘horrid’ on film set: ‘Perhaps he was method acting’

Margolyes has reflected on ‘uncomfortable’ experience working with ‘unlovely’ star in 1987

Actor Miriam Margolyes has hit out at her former co-star Steve Martin, calling him “horrid”.

The star of stage and screen, who has become increasingly known for her unfiltered views on celebrities she has met, targeted the Hollywood comedian and Only Murders in the Building star in her new memoir.

In the book, which was published on Thursday, Margolyes reflected on the “uncomfortable” experience of working with Martin, 78, on Frank Oz’s cult hit Little Shop of Horrors, which was released in 1986.

Margolyes, 82, played the secretary to Martin’s “psychopathic dentist” Orin Scrivello in the film and, in their musical number “Dentist!”, Margolyes is punched by Martin’s character, who also slams a door into her face,

In her memoir, Margolyes suggested she was hurt for real while filming the scenes, writing: "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 came home grumpy with a splitting headache.”

Margolyes added: “Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of art,” concluding that the actor “was undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me”.

She went onto praise her former co-star Steve Buscemi saying that the actor “was unerringly sweet” and “knocked spots off Steve Martin”.

Martin has since refuted Margolyes version of events, while categorically “objecting” to the claim he punched her.

The actor, whose film credits include The Man with Two Brains and Parenthood, currently stars in Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, which he co-created.

Martin stars in the show alongside Martin Short and Selena Gomez.

Steve Martin and Miriam Margolyes in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ (The Geffen Company)

Elsewhere in Margolyes’s memoir, the actor recalled flashing an “exhausted” Martin Scorsese while working with him on the 1993 film The Age of Innocence.

Margolyes, in a recent interview, called John Cleese “poisonous”, and branded him “a puny tadpole of a person”.

In recent years Cleese, who is set to debut a new show on GB News this month, has become am increasingly divisive figure. In 2019, he appeared to denounce multi-culturalism, saying: “London is not an English city any more.”

After he was criticised, the 83-year-old responded: “I suspect I should apologise for my affection for the Englishness of my upbringing, but in some ways, I found it calmer, more polite, more humorous, less tabloid and less money-oriented than the one that is replacing it.”

Oh Miriam: Stories from an Extraordinary Life is out now. Find 11 of the book’s biggest revelations here – from Margolyes’s “most-despised” people to her encounter with a “smug” Mick Jagger.