It has solely taken our tradition over a decade to reckon with the reality: We completely did Katherine Heigl soiled.
Scrubbing again into some mid-aughts “Gray’s Anatomy” drama, Ellen Pompeo has come to her former co-star’s defence greater than a decade after she controversially exited the long-running medical drama.
Heigl was branded as a villain for clashing with the powers behind the ABC collection after publicly criticising the cruel working circumstances on set and later withdrawing her identify from Emmy rivalry over lacklustre materials.
However Pompeo is now praising Heigl for making “ballsy” feedback on the time.
“I bear in mind Heigl stated one thing on a chat present concerning the insane hours we had been working, however she was 100% proper — and had she stated that right now she’d be an entire hero, however she was forward of her time,” she stated in an episode of her “Inform Me” podcast.
“After all, let’s slam a lady and name her ungrateful when the reality is she’s 100% sincere, and it’s completely right what she stated,” Pompeo continued. “And she or he was fucking ballsy for saying it. And she or he was telling the reality. She wasn’t mendacity. Additionally, once you’re youthful, you’re so excited to be there and also you’re so glad to be invited to the celebration that you just’re prepared to do no matter it’s they’re asking you to do.”
Heigl certainly confronted backlash over a 2009 look on “The Late Present With David Letterman,” the place she described her “17-hour” workday as “merciless and imply.”
Heigl addressed these feedback whereas endorsing the Worldwide Alliance of Theatrical Stage Workers strike in a prolonged Instagram publish in September, remarking that she obtained her “ass kicked for talking up.”
Pompeo, who now additionally serves as one of many government producers on “Gray’s Anatomy,” defined that the tradition has fortunately developed since Heigl’s days, including that “happier actors” imply there’s “not as a lot drama.”
“I’m very fortunate now with my schedule on ‘Gray’s,’” she stated. “I get to chop again, and general I’m glad for the manufacturing as a complete as a result of now we have reduce tremendously. Again within the day, we used to do loopy, loopy hours.”
Whereas Heigl has since starred in a slew of tasks, together with Netflix’s “Firefly Lane,” she has spoken about how being labeled “troublesome” took a severe toll on each her profession and psychological well being.
“I could have stated a few stuff you didn’t like, however then that escalated to, ‘She’s ungrateful,’ then that escalated to, ‘She’s troublesome,’ and that escalated to, ‘She’s unprofessional,’” she informed The Washington Publish in an interview final 12 months. “What’s your definition of adverse? Any person with an opinion that you just don’t like? Now, I’m 42, and that shit pisses me off.”
Heigl stated that she was “rapidly informed to close the fuck up” amid the fallout from her feedback.
“I requested my mother and my husband to seek out me someplace to go that would assist me as a result of I felt like I might relatively be lifeless,” she informed the Publish. “I didn’t notice how a lot nervousness I used to be residing with till I obtained so dangerous that I needed to actually search assist. You are able to do plenty of inside soul work, however I’m an enormous fan of Zoloft.”
Heigl beforehand expressed curiosity in returning to the collection and wrapping up her character’s arc, however creator Shonda Rhimes has stated she’s unequivocally “accomplished with that story.”
“I’ve turned that concept over in my thoughts a thousand instances and considered how it might go,” Rhimes informed TVLine again in 2013. “And I don’t suppose so.”
“Gray’s Anatomy,” presently standing because the longest operating medical drama in tv historical past, was renewed for a nineteenth season in January. Other than Pompeo, Chandra Wilson and James Pickens Jr. are the present’s solely remaining unique forged members.