How Katherine Heigl derailed her career with one interview
There was a time in the late 2000s that Katherine Heigl was on top of the world. After making Emmy-winning waves in Grey’s Anatomy, she was hot property in Hollywood, leading to her starring in the hit movies like Knocked Up and 27 Dresses.
However, her time at the summit was brief. Although she has never quit acting and is now more prominent following the success of Netflix’s Firefly Lane, for an extended period, Heigl was deemed one of Hollywood’s most “difficult” stars following a notorious interview. It’s a strange tale, as all she did was defend herself and what she believes right, with the level of offence at a minimum.
It all started in 2008 after starring in Judd Apatow’s comedy Knocked Up the previous year. In a now-infamous Vanity Fair interview, the actor criticised the movie for being “a little sexist” in portraying women, noting a discrepancy between the male and female characters.
“It was a little sexist,” she said. “It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it on some days. I’m playing such a b***h; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you’re portraying women?” Heigl added, “98 per cent of the time, it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.”
When Apatow and Heigl’s co-star Seth Rogen appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2009, they discussed her comments. Apatow maintained: “We never had a ‘fight’… Seth always says it doesn’t make any sense (because) she improvised half her shit … (You think) at some point I’ll get a call saying ‘Sorry, I was tired…’ and then the call never comes’.” Rogen also noted that Heigl’s criticisms seemed hypocritical, given the portrayal of women in the traditionally-configured 2009 rom-com, The Ugly Truth, that she also starred in.
2008 was when things started to unfurl for Katherine Heigl’s reputation. That year, she also gained negative media attention by surprisingly withdrawing her name from Emmy contention for her work in Grey’s Anatomy. “I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination,” the actor asserted in a statement. “And in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organisation, I withdrew my name from contention.”
The show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes, was shocked by the comments, telling Oprah Winfrey later: “On some level it stung, and on some level I was not surprised. When people show you who they are, believe them”. Heigl left the show in 2010, with there an increasingly common belief that she was one of the most “difficult” actors in the industry.
However, Heigl has since offered her side of the story. “I was really embarrassed,” she told The Howard Stern Show in April 2016. “I went in to [showrunner] Shonda [Rhimes] and said, ‘I was so sorry, that wasn’t cool. I should not have said that’.”
She continued: “I shouldn’t have said anything publicly, but at the time, I didn’t think anybody would notice.”
Heigl also revealed that she had entered therapy to grapple with the mental effects of her earning the “difficult” tag. “I had never done therapy before until a couple of years ago. I started going because of the scrutiny,” she explained. “I was not handling it well. I was feeling completely like the biggest piece of shit on the bottom of your shoe.”
“I was really struggling with it and how to not take it all personally and not to feel there was something deeply wrong with me,” Heigl continued. “It was really, at first, very hard”. The actor then reflected on her experience shooting an unnamed independent movie, where her reputation took an unhealthy toll on her life. “I remember wearing shoes a size too small because I was afraid to tell wardrobe they weren’t big enough because I didn’t want to be difficult,” the actor said. “After that, I was like, ‘This is nonsense, stop it.'”
In his own Howard Stern Show appearance in August of that year, Seth Rogen looked back on working with Heigl and was positive about the experience, despite her infamous comments. “As we were making the movie, honestly, I was like, ‘I would make a dozen movies with her,'” Rogen told the host. “I was having a really good time, and then when I heard afterwards that she didn’t like it, that she seemed to not like the process, and she did not like the end product either. I think when that happens — also your trust feels somewhat betrayed.”
Noting the 2008 Vanity Fair interview’s detrimental effect on her career, Rogen added: “I respect the fact that perhaps she realises it has hurt her career, and I don’t want that to have happened to her at all.”
Heigl responded to Rogen’s comments in The Hollywood Reporter and expressed “love and respect” for the kindness of his words. “I think that he’s handled that so beautifully, and I just feel nothing but love and respect,” she stated. “And it was so long ago at this point, I just wish him so much goodness, and I felt that from him, too.”
Whilst the Katherine Heigl saga appears to be a mountain made out of a molehill, with her comments not appalling or cruel, but a defence of what she deemed proper and her career, the story serves as a reminder of the destructive influence that fame, and the media, can have on someone’s life. It’s even more alarming what happened to Heigl after she stood up for women. Hopefully, though, times have changed.
