Steve Martin Responds to ‘Little Store’ Co-Star Miriam Margolyes’ Declare of “Horrid” Conduct on Set: “I Must Object”

Steve Martin is responding to accusations his Little Store of Horrors co-star Miriam Margolyes made in regards to the actor in her memoir.

In a press release to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin stated he remembered their time on set in another way, noting he took “excessive warning” when it got here to filming the scene by which Margolyes stated he truly hit her.

“Once I first learn Miriam Margolyes pejorative account of our scene in Little Store of Horrors, I used to be stunned. My reminiscence is that we had an excellent communication as skilled actors,” Martin’s assertion learn. “However when it’s implied that I harmed her or was ultimately careless about doing the stunts, I’ve to object. I bear in mind taking EXTREME warning concerning the faux punch – the identical warning I’d use with any comparable scene.”

He defined that they talked on set, and he or she assured him that she was OK. “There was by no means any bodily contact between her and me, unintentional or in any other case, on this scene or some other we shot,” he wrote.

The Solely Murders within the Constructing star additionally famous that whereas they had been filming the scene, there have been a number of different crewmembers on set to make sure that the scene went as easily as attainable, together with director Frank Oz.

“I at all times rehearse bodily actions in sluggish movement,” Ozsaid in his personal assertion. “The scene was supposed to incorporate a faux punch. It’s puzzling what she’s speaking about. It’s not the Steve I do know or anybody is aware of. He’s at all times been skilled and respectful of everybody on all of my shoots.”

Margolyes starred as a dental assistant to Martin’s character, the comically sadistic Orin Scrivello. Through the musical quantity “Dentist!” Scrivello punches Margolyes’ character and slams a door in her face.

In Oh Miriam! Tales from an Extraordinary Life, she claims that Martin struck her for actual whereas filming the scene. “I used to be hit all day by doorways opening in my face; repeatedly punched, slapped and knocked down by an unlovely and unapologetic Steve Martin – maybe he was Methodology appearing – and got here dwelling grumpy with a splitting headache,” she wrote within the memoir, in response to HuffPost UK. She wrote that Martin was “undeniably sensible however horrid to me.”

The claims turned heads once they circulated on-line Friday, given Martin’s affable public persona that has sustained him throughout a protracted profession that almost all just lately has included accolades for the Hulu collection Solely Murders within the Constructing.

Margolyes, throughout her lengthy profession, has had roles within the Harry Potter movies as Professor Pomona Sprout and gained a BAFTA for the 1994 function The Age of Innocence.

Christy Piña contributed to this story.