Ellen Pompeo Admits Katherine Heigl Was Right To Call The “Grey’s Anatomy” Working Conditions “Cruel”

Ellen Pompeo has spoken out in assist of her former Gray’s Anatomy costar Katherine Heigl, who infamously condemned the working situations on set over a decade in the past.

As you would possibly recall, Katherine — who portrayed Dr. Izzie Stevens on the hit medical drama from 2005 till 2010 — confronted an enormous wave of backlash after publicly calling the present’s lengthy hours on set “merciless.”

“Our first day again was Wednesday. It was — I will hold saying this as a result of I hope it embarrasses them — a 17-hour day, which I feel is merciless and imply,” she stated throughout an look on The Late Present With David Letterman in 2009.

A 12 months prior, Katherine had sparked backlash after withdrawing herself from rivalry for Finest Supporting Actress in a Drama on the 2008 Emmys, which many interpreted as a dig towards the producers of Gray’s Anatomy — particularly on condition that she’d gained the earlier 12 months.

She ultimately clarified that she hadn’t been making a swipe on the Gray’s crew, saying: “I believed I used to be doing the precise factor. And I needed to be clear that I wasn’t snubbing the Emmys.”

Between the Emmy drama and her feedback on David Letterman — alongside together with her remarks denouncing Judd Apatow’s 2007 film Knocked Up, wherein she and Seth Rogen held main roles — Katherine grew to become extensively labeled as “ungrateful” and “troublesome” inside Hollywood, which brought on her profession to undergo an enormous hit.

In actual fact, the backlash acquired so intense that Katherine grew cautious of how she introduced herself on set and ended up having to go to remedy. “I had by no means accomplished remedy earlier than, till a few years in the past. I began going due to the scrutiny,” she instructed Howard Stern in 2016. “I used to be not dealing with it effectively. I used to be feeling utterly like the largest piece of shit on the underside of your shoe.”

“I used to be actually scuffling with it and how you can not take all of it personally and to not really feel there was one thing deeply improper with me,” she continued, earlier than recalling how she was so afraid of being labeled “troublesome” once more that she as soon as felt uncomfortable telling crew members that she’d been given a pair of sneakers that didn’t match her.

“I keep in mind carrying sneakers a measurement too small as a result of I used to be afraid to inform wardrobe they weren’t large enough as a result of I didn’t need to be troublesome,” she stated. “After that I used to be like, ‘That is nonsense, cease it.’”

“A few of you could keep in mind over ten years in the past I used to be very vocal concerning the absurdity of the working hours crews and actors have been being compelled into by manufacturing,” she wrote. “Even Diane Sawyer interviewed me and never so kindly knowledgeable me ‘nobody feels sorry for you.’ I very publicly and for a lot of a few years after acquired my ass kicked for talking up.”

Katherine continued, ”When manufacturing plows into hour 14 and past, they’re asking our crews to drive themselves dwelling bone drained. … The quantity of people that have fallen asleep on the wheel is staggering. The variety of accidents that occur on set on account of exhaustion are stunning. Sickness each psychological and bodily is off the charts. There’s nothing glamorous or attractive about working previous the purpose of exhaustion.”

“Once I first spoke up I used to be talking on behalf of myself and my crew on Gray’s,” she went on. “Right now issues are a bit of totally different for me. I’m within the lucky place of with the ability to say no. To show down a job if it requires extra then I can bear. And in all honesty…I’ve type of aged out of giving a shit if I piss folks off by creating boundaries that defend my well being, sanity, and work.”

She added, “It’s time for cheap and truthful work situations, wages, and hours to be extra then only a precedence they have to be the norm. Interval.”

Katherine’s assertion obtained a way more optimistic response than her feedback in 2009 did, with a number of followers voicing their assist for the actor and praising her for “standing up” for herself.

“I at all times thought you have been courageous and proper for standing up for your self and it was improper so that you can be bullied and labeled ‘troublesome,’” one wrote. “You identified to folks what was occurring proper below their noses. You referred to as it out and also you spoke up for everybody, not simply your self. The media, as divisive because it at all times is, framed you unfairly,” echoed one other.

And now, her former costar Ellen — who performs protagonist Dr. Meredith Gray on the present — is talking out in assist of Katherine too.

On the newest episode of her podcast Inform Me with Ellen Pompeo, Ellen — who was accompanied by Gray’s costar Kate Walsh — mirrored on Katherine’s decade-old feedback.

“I keep in mind Heigl stated one thing on a chat present concerning the insane hours we have been working,” Ellen recalled. “And she or he was 100% proper.”

“Had she stated that right now, she’d be a whole hero,” she stated. “However she’s forward of her time, made an announcement about our loopy hours and, in fact, let’s slam a girl and name her ungrateful.”

Ellen went on to reward Katherine for being “ballsy” sufficient to talk out again in 2009, earlier than claiming that she “was telling the reality” concerning the working situations.

“She was fucking ballsy for saying it,” Ellen stated. “And she or he was telling the reality. She wasn’t mendacity.”

A number of followers expressed their gratitude towards Ellen for talking out in protection of Katherine. Nonetheless, viewers additionally questioned why Ellen is barely now selecting to stay up for her former costar, noting that Katherine spent years solid out from Hollywood because of the controversy.

“Years of being silent on the topic, of criticizing Heigl fairly than defending her and now she needs to cross her off as a ‘heroine forward of her time’ to provide herself a picture of an ally,” one other tweeted.