Philip Seymour Hoffman cited Mike Nichol’s apology for The Seagull

Even Philip Seymour Hoffman recognized how “tough” Mike Nichols was on Marcia Gay Harden during the famous Broadway production of “The Seagull” in 2001.

More than 20 years later, during Sony Music Entertainment’s “Dinner’s On Me” podcast hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Harden recalled how director Nichols treated her like a “guinea pig” during the star-studded play. Years later, Nichols apologized to Harden for how he had treated her – but only at Hoffman’s urging.

“I had won an Oscar for ‘Pollock’ and got an offer (not even an audition) to play Masha in ‘The Seagull’ in Central Park,” Harden said. “The choice of names was crazy: it was Chris(topher) Walken, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stephen Spinella, Larry Pine, Deborah Monk, John Goodman. So of course I will.”

Harden went on to say that she hoped Nichols would find her to be “the new Meryl Streep,” a frequent Nichols collaborator.

“I thought in my vain thought that Mike (Nichols) would see me and realize that I was the new Meryl Streep, you know,” Harden said, “but now he also had to do ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ but with me “I just had in the back of my mind that he would love me and that he would find someone similar in spirit and passion for Meryl.”

She added: “By the way, I didn’t know anyone was similar to Meryl. I think she’s uniquely one of the most inventive… she’s a goddess. But I thought maybe he would also think of me as a goddess and maybe be on a different level.”

Instead, Harden says she’s the “only person who gets teased, and if the show doesn’t succeed, it’s that person’s fault.”

Harden said: “There is no way this person can ever be successful. No. Anyway, we do it and it’s the cast of all these people. And indeed, Meryl was, rightly so, the reigning queen of this particular piece. So it became clear very quickly that whatever I did as Masha was the wrong thing.”

Harden pointed out the different treatment she received compared to Streep.

“I remember even during the technical rehearsal (in the first) three minutes of the piece starting, I thought, ‘I’m sorry, can I do this again?’ Mike says “No.” Cut to Meryl, the end of the second act or something, and she asks, “Can I go back to the beginning?” And he said, “Yes, of course.” That’s my perception of it, right?”

Harden, who shared a dressing room with Streep, tearfully asked the actress why Nichols didn’t like her.

“At one point I sobbed to her and said, ‘I don’t think Mike (Nichols) likes me.’ I don’t think Mike likes me.’ And she said, ‘I don’t know if he likes her or not.’ And it doesn’t matter,'” Harden said, and Streep added at the time, “‘I don’t think he likes Masha.’ And it’s your job to stay true to your character.’”

But her co-star Hoffman had a slightly different opinion, Harden said. The late actor apparently told Nichols that he was “really hard” on Harden, and in 2009, Nichols apologized to the actress.

“I was doing ‘God of Carnage’ and unbeknownst to me Mike was in the audience one night with Diane Sawyer, his wife,” Harden said. “And he bursts into tears and I hug him and he says, ‘I was really hard on you on The Seagull, wasn’t I? And I said yes. And he said, “Even Philip Seymour told me that I was really hard on you in The Seagull.” And I said, “Well, you were.” And he says, “Who would have thought? You’re one of the greatest actresses in America.'”

Harden added, “So it’s a little embarrassing to say the end of the story, but he said it.” And I think the bottom line for me is that it was a two-way street. Mike was disappointed by what I didn’t know. And he also played favorites, as he does. He can be very hard on people, but he was disappointed that I didn’t approach it instinctively with what he knew. And so he punished me a little bit for that.”

Nichols died in 2014.

The Seagull was later adapted into a feature film in 2018 starring Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Brian Dennehy and Corey Stoll.