Ellen Pompeo: Katherine Heigl's 'Grey's Anatomy' Exit Left Things 'Spinning Out of Control'
"Grey's Anatomy" has gone through its shares of ups and downs in its 10 seasons, but none so turbulent as actress Katherine Heigl's exit, according to star Ellen Pompeo.
"Hurt feelings, combined with instant success and huge paychecks started things spinning out of control," Pompeo told the New York Post. "The crazier things got, as I watched all the tumult with Isaiah and then the Katie [Heigl] thing, I started to focus on the work. Maybe it is my Boston, blue-collar upbringing … I just tried not to pay attention to all the noise around me."
Pompeo noted that Heigl's leaving was not handled properly by the actress herself and should not have happened the way it did.
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"You could understand why she wanted to go," Pompeo said, "when you're offered $12 million a movie and you're only 26. But Katie's problem is that she should not have renewed her contract. She re-upped, took a big raise, and then tried to get off the show. And then her movie career did not take off."
Yet Heigl's film career does generate plenty of interest and she's been featured in such hits as "Knocked Up," "The Ugly Truth," "Life As We Know It" and "One for the Money." She still has several more projects coming out next year. Heigl has also worked on expanding her family by adopting two daughters: Nancy Leigh and Adalaide Marie Hope with husband Josh Kelley. She told the press that adopting her first daughter was why she left "Grey's Anatomy."
Even without Pompeo's claims, others have said that Heigl is difficult to work with, as is her mother and manager, Nancy.
"(Katherine) can cost you time every single day of shooting," a source told the Hollywood Reporter. "Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the trailer, questioning the script every single day. The frustrating part is she is incredibly talented and smart."
The director of "Life As We Know It" countered the claim by saying he "would work with her again in a heartbeat."
