The movie Katharine Heigl regrets making: “I felt betrayed”
In recent years, Katharine Heigl has experienced huge success on television. From 2021 to 2023, she starred in Netflix’s Firefly Lane, and before that, she played Samantha Wheeler in the final two seasons of the USA Network’s Suits. It was the culmination of a long road back to prominence for the actor, who was once a promising movie star on the rise in the 2000s and a cast member on one of the most popular shows on television. This was all before she made some controversial comments about a movie she regretted making, though, and she claimed her honesty led to her being shunned by Hollywood.
In 2005, Heigl landed the most significant role of her career up until that point. After starring as a teen alien on The WB’s Roswell for three years, she appeared in a few movies that didn’t set the box office alight. But when she was cast as Dr Isobel “Izzie” Stevens in Grey’s Anatomy, her career began to take off. She was a cast member of the all-conquering Shonda Rhimes medical drama for six seasons, and it was during her tenure on the show that higher-profile movie roles began to present themselves.
Heigl starred in the romcoms 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and was able to command around $6million for her services. However, 2008 was also when she gave an extremely controversial interview to Vanity Fair in which she criticised the direction her character took on Grey’s Anatomy.
In that same interview, Heigl also accused the 2007 gross-out comedy that many people feel kickstarted her movie career of being “sexist”. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go over well with her co-star and director.
What did Katharine Heigl say about Knocked Up?
Of course, the movie in question is Knocked Up, the Judd Apatow comedy starring Heigl and Seth Rogen as a mismatched couple who have a one-night stand and wind up contending with an unexpected pregnancy. The movie was an enormous critical and commercial hit, grossing $219m worldwide and launching the film careers of both Rogen and Heigl.
However, Heigl had mixed feelings about the film and aired them to Vanity Fair. She said she believed the film was “a little sexist” and explained: “It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. Why is this how you’re portraying women?” To her credit, Heigl did temper these comments by adding, “Ninety-eight per cent of the time, it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.” Sadly for her, though, the damage was already done.
A year later, Rogen and Apatow appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show and revealed Heigl’s comments hurt them. Rogen, in particular, was shocked, as he felt he and Heigl had a blast making the film together. He said, “As we were making the movie, honestly, I was like, ‘I would make a dozen movies with her.'”
“I was having a really good time,” Rogen confirmed, “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…your trust feels somewhat betrayed.”
By 2016, though, Rogen had begun to see more of Heigl’s side. He conceded, “She didn’t feel as though the product was reflective of how she thought she should be portrayed” and admitted that, at the time, his ego was simply bruised.
Heigl’s film career never quite recovered from the interview, as she gained a reputation for being “difficult” and was viewed as having bit the hand that fed her. In 2021, she told the Washington Post that she felt she’d been shunned by the industry, making her feel like she’d “rather be dead”. Then, in 2023, she told Red magazine, “I felt betrayed. I felt confused, wondering, ‘How could they turn on me so quickly?'”
Heigl repeatedly apologised for her comments, but she soon began to think this tactic didn’t help her case. She mused: “I thought self-flagellation in front of everybody would make them happy, but actually, it made me weaker in people’s eyes and made me feel weak.”
Over time, Heigl grew to accept what had happened to her. She realised that her ambition to be involved in projects that better represented women was not a bad thing, and in recent years, she has resolutely stood by her comments.
Ultimately, saying Katherine Heigl regrets Knocked Up may be true, but she certainly doesn’t regret voicing her opinion on the film and Hollywood’s treatment of women.
