File this under It’s never too late to say something nice: Ellen Pompeo credits her former Grey’s Anatomy co-star Katherine Heigl for speaking out about working conditions in the early days of her ABC sick drama Has.
Speaking to another co-star, Kate Walsh, on the April 20 episode of her podcast, Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo, Pompeo recalled when Heigl went on a talk show and publicly addressed the “insane hours that.” we worked.”
Pompeo continued, “If she had said that today, she would be a complete hero.” She added that Heigl was “ahead of her time” and was deemed “ungrateful” for saying that, “if the truth is, she is 100 percent honest and absolutely right about what she said and she was damn brave to say it. And she was telling the truth, she wasn’t lying.”
Pompeo was likely referring to Heigl’s 2009 appearance on Late Show With David Letterman, in which she described a 17-hour workday just before the start of Gray’s sixth season as “cruel and mean” and mentioned that she hoped her comments would reflect that would embarrass the show’s production team.
Longtime Gray viewers will recall that Heigl famously didn’t volunteer for an Emmy in 2008, saying in a statement that she “didn’t feel I got the material this season to win an Emmy.” to justify the nomination”. In 2010 she left the series.
In a 2013 interview with the New York Post, Pompeo opened up about the behind-the-scenes unrest. “When Katie left, it was tough,” she said. “You could understand why she wanted to leave — when you’re being offered $12 million for a movie and you’re only 26. But Katie’s problem is that she shouldn’t have renewed her contract. She re-raised, took a big raise and then tried to fold the show. And then her film career took off.”
Heigl can currently be seen on Netflix’s Firefly Lane. A rep for the actress did not comment on Pompeo’s comments.