The premiere of Grey’s Anatomyalmost 20 years ago, was a breath of fresh air on television. A medical drama full of young talents in a series that mixed the professional and the personal and became an instant classic. However, within a few years the problems began to surface. There were accusations of homophobia, racism, workplace abuse, a bad atmosphere among the cast… Some actors left, and not all of them did so on the best of terms. This is what happened with Katherine Heigl, whose character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, was one of the public’s favorites, but disappeared in the sixth season, in 2010. During this time, Heigl, 45, has been explaining some details that led her to leave the hospital drama, and now she has sat down to chat with fellow actress Shannen Doherty (who, in turn, left the series on a not-so-good note). Charmedfrom which she was fired in its third season) about the difficulties of speaking out as a woman and what happened that time when she was much criticized for not being nominated for an Emmy by her own decision.
Since the conversation starts in the podcast Let’s Be Clearhave tried to explain what happened at those 2008 Emmy Awards, when Heigl supposedly said no to the award, as Doherty lets them see. “Honestly, I don’t know anyone other than you who would turn down an Emmy nomination,” the actress tells her. Charmed to the also protagonist of films such as 27 dresses either Embarrassing mess“Well, I didn’t,” Heigl explains, “and everyone keeps saying I turned it down.” She then goes on to explain that she didn’t actually turn down the nomination, but rather decided from the start not to be nominated. “You know, you have to submit it yourself,” she explains, referring to the fact that in order to get an Emmy nomination, you have to apply in person. “You have to submit your work, and then they deliberate and decide whether to nominate you. And I just didn’t submit my work that year,” she admits. The thing is, not only did she not submit her work, but she did so because she wasn’t proud of her role that season — and she said so publicly. “My mom and I were talking about this recently. I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have said, ‘Oh, I forgot! ’ Because that created an unnecessary mess,” she recalls. “I was trying to be a little scathing about the material that they gave me that year, but I just didn’t feel good about it. “I didn’t think I had anything that would even warrant me a nomination. I just wasn’t proud of my work. You know, I would never be so bold or so arrogant as to turn down a nomination. I would have accepted it. I did it my way,” the actress says during the chat. “I was trying to be honest. I guess I was trying to have some integrity. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk.”
This caused immense discomfort with Heigl on the part of the series’ team. Especially when in 2007 she had become the winner of an Emmy, beating her colleagues Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson (the doctors Yang and Bailey), and also Aida Turturro and Lorreine Braco (from The Sopranos) and Rachel Griffiths (Five brothers). It was in June 2008 when Heigl announced in a statement that she was withdrawing from the Emmy race: “I don’t think this season has the material to warrant a nomination,” she said at the time. Some anonymous sources from the series then leaked to the specialized press that the production had adjusted the recording schedule to accommodate the filming of the movies that the actress was already beginning to film at that time, and that they took her comment as “an ungrateful slap in the face to the scriptwriters who made her win an Emmy.” In these 20 years, the series has received 39 nominations but only five awards, this being the only one for one of its protagonists.
In addition, these criticisms were added to those made by the actress, who in 2007 tried to ask for a salary increase outside of her contract; then, the ABC network sent a statement expressing its surprise and explaining that they had already raised her salary. The actress also complained, in a pioneering way, about the terrible recording schedules of the series, with 17 hours a day. A couple of years ago, her co-star, Ellen Pompeo, acknowledged that “she was 100% right”: “If she had said it today, she would be an absolute heroine. But she was ahead of her time. She made a statement about those crazy schedules and, come on, of course, let’s all go and beat up a woman and call her ungrateful.” Amidst being called complicated and whiny, finally, after 120 episodes and six seasons, Dr. Stevens left in 2010, never to return.
Doherty argues that if it had been a man who had made the decision not to run for an Emmy, “everyone would say, ‘Oh, he’s so honored! ’ but because she was a woman she was held to a different standard, and in the entertainment industry many women who choose to say no or stick to the truth are labeled as arrogant or difficult. The actress Feeling of living She explains that she has been there, and that she has been fired for raising her voice on occasion, such as in Charmedwhen she left through the back door in season three. “I look back and no, they’ve never liked really strong women. They like them to know their place. A lot of times at Aaron Spelling’s company, they’d say to me, ‘Shut up and be on your mark. ’ And I’d say, ‘Wait, you don’t pay me enough for this, if you want me to be quiet and not have an opinion, pay me a lot more. ’”
Heigl says it hasn’t been easy for her either, and that it took her years to get out of that supposedly kind and benevolent role that was assumed of her. In fact, she explains that when she started the series she was very similar to Izzie, the character she played, “very insecure, but with a lot of fight inside,” and unable to say no on many occasions. “When I was in my thirties, like 35 to 40, I tried to be as calm and proper and sweet, trying to disappear as much as possible, and it still didn’t work. So, I don’t know, I got to forty and I said, ‘Fuck it.’ Life is too short and I, like you say, I just want to be true to myself. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad, or intimidate, or bother, or hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s not my intention. I’m sure I’ve done it on occasion, by mistake or accident, but I’ll try. I also don’t like being harassed, and I don’t have a very calm, rational reaction to it. I tend to get the boxing gloves out.” She does explain, however, that over time she has learned certain lessons, that there are “things that can stay behind closed doors,” but others where she will continue to be very clear, “speaking up and shouting the consequences.” “Hollywood is complicated. I’m sure many industries are, but this is not a game.
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