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In 2007, Katherine Heigl won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for playing Izzie Stevens on the third season of Grey’s Anatomy. We all know what happened next. The following year, she caused a lot of drama by releasing a statement saying that she was withdrawing her name from consideration that year because she didn’t think she was “given the material to warrant” a nomination and wanted to “maintain the integrity of the academy organization.” It came across as pretentious and surprised the Grey’s writing staff. Unfortunately for Katherine, it was one of many instances of public comments and tensions with co-stars that basically ended her movie career.
Katherine recently appeared on Shannen Doherty’s podcast, Let’s Be Clear. During their chat, Shannen asked Katherine about the decision to withdraw from Emmy consideration. In the past, Katherine has acknowledged that she “ambushed” the writers with that statement because it was a “private work matter.” On the podcast, she told Shannen that realizes she created an unnecessary sh-tstorm and regrets her actions because, in hindsight, she shouldn’t have said anything at all.
She regrets saying anything: “Well I didn’t, and everybody keeps saying that. I didn’t turn it down. You know, you have to submit yourself. You have to submit your work and then they deliberate and then they decide if they want to give you a nomination. I just didn’t submit my work that year. And I should, you know, I don’t know, my mother and I were talking about this recently. I should have said nothing. I should have said nothing. I should have just said ‘Oh I forgot,’ because it created such a maelstrom that was so unnecessary, and it really was.”
She “wasn’t trying to be a d-ck:” “I was kind of trying to make a bit of a snarky point about my material that year, but I was also just not feeling my material. I didn’t think I had anything that warranted even the consideration for a nomination. I just wasn’t proud of my work…I would never be so bold or so arrogant to turn down a nomination. I would take that nomination if it came my way. I’d be down. But I just knew there wasn’t anything that would really warrant one that year, and I was trying to be honorable, I guess. I was trying to have some integrity. I wasn’t trying to be a d-ck.”
On her comments about Grey’s long working hours: As she remained with the series however, tensions began to rise between herself and the producers. In 2009, Heigl publicly called out the Grey’s producers for having the cast and crew work a 17-hour day, which she called “cruel and mean.”
I understand Katherine’s frustration with not liking the way Izzie’s storyline was going that season. That’s valid, even though that season was cut short by the writer’s strike and a lot of TV shows suffered as a result. But publicly releasing a statement putting down your show’s writers was not the way to handle that. It came off as rude. In the past, she’s explained that she was afraid that the academy would think that she was snubbing them by not submitting her work, given that she was the incumbent winner. Why couldn’t she have just sent them a private memo that explains why she wasn’t submitting? Oh, right, because she also wanted the public to know why her name wasn’t appearing on the nominee list. She did create a mess for herself, and unfortunately, Hollywood has always granted more forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt to men.
You can listen to Katherine’s appearance on Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty here.
Katherine Heigl is shown out with her mom in June, 2008 a couple of weeks after she posted that statement. Credit: Max Butterworth/Matt Symons/PacificCoastNews.com / Avalon. Other photos credit Getty and via Instagram