Jania Ashlynn
Talk still buzzes around the actress’s time on Grey’s Anatomy.
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Growing Fame
In an interview with Variety for their Actors on Actors series, Katherine Heigl was honest about how her many comments to the press caused her trouble in the 2000s. She was interviewed alongside her Grey’s Anatomy costar, Ellen Pompeo.
“I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly,” Heigl shared. “I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox.”
“There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from,” she added.
Katherine Heigl, who portrayed Izzie Stevens on the medical drama for six seasons and won an Emmy, departed the show in 2010 amidst controversy.
One year before, she had expressed her opinion about the show’s extensive working hours and challenging working environment.
“Our first day back was Wednesday. It was — I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them — a 17-hour day, which I think is cruel and mean,” Heigl shared in a 2009 interview with David Letterman on The Late Show With David Letterman.
This was not the first time that her remarks regarding the show were highlighted in the news. In 2008, she gave an interview to Vanity Fair, in which she labeled her character’s arc in Grey’s Anatomy as a “ratings ploy” and qualified her successful film Knocked Up as “a little sexist.”
In the same year, she withdrew her nomination for the Emmys, saying that she did not think she had been given enough material to be nominated. This statement reportedly offended Grey’s creator, Shonda Rhimes.
Ego Boost
Heigl said that the success of the show gave her the audacity to express her opinion at the time.
“I think that gave me this confidence that was a false sense of confidence. It was rooted in something that couldn’t and maybe wouldn’t always last for me,” Heigl shared. “So then I started getting real mouthy, because I did have a lot to say, and there were certain boundaries and things that I was not OK with being crossed.”
She said she “felt such shame for such a long time, and then had to go, ‘Wait. Who am I listening to? I’m not even listening to myself. I know who I am.'”
