Steve Martin’s cameo in 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors is a fan-favorite moment in the film, but according to one of the actors involved in the movie, it wasn’t as nice on set.
What did Margolyes say?
In her recent memoir Oh Miriam!: Stories from an Extraordinary Life, actress Miriam Margolyes — who appeared as a Dental Nurse opposite Martin in the film — claims that Martin was “horrid” while on set on the film, and that she would actually be hit with doors by Martin while filming their scenes, which involved Martin’s dentist character slamming a door in Margolyes’ face.
“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 (via Variety). “Perhaps he was method acting – and [I] came home grumpy with a splitting headache.”
Margolyes said that Martin was “undeniably brillaint,” but that the experience wasn’t great, saying that he was “horrid to me,” before joking “Let it not be said that I have never suffered in the name of Art.”
Martin appeared in Little Shop of Horrors as Orin Scrivello, DDS, a sadistic doctor who served as Audrey’s abusive boyfriend. He has a musical number (“Dentist!”) in the film, and is later killed while asphyxiating due to too much nitrous oxide.
