Footage has emerged showing Katherine Heigl responding to a reporter who says, “I’ve heard you’re very rude.”
In response to the interview that is alleged to have ‘ruined her career overnight,’ she spoke to talk-show presenter Meredith Vieira in November 2014 and appeared unmoved by the direct question.
“I’ve heard you’re quite rude; what are your thoughts?” Katherine Heigl quietly nods as if anticipating the grilling as the host continues.
It all started with an unfortunate cover interview with Vanity Fair in 2008, in which Katherine Heigl trashed her leading part in Knocked Up, a film that got an amazing 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $219.1 million (about £175.6 million) at the box office.
“It was a little sexist,” Katherine Heigl said at the time. “It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys.
“It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I’m playing such a b*tch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you’re portraying women?
“Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.”
Awkward.
In response to Meredith’s straight-to-the-point question, Katherine Heigl responded: “You know what, I’ve been saying I don’t think I am, but I’m going to be really honest right now: I’m not,” the actor begins.
“I know I’m not. I don’t need to think about it. I’m not a rude person, I’m not an unkind or mean person.
“I would never go out of my way or consciously hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel bad or uncomfortable or not be professional and do my job – I like my job.”
She continues as her tone switches to defence mode: “But I will continue to stand up for myself. And I’m not going to stop standing up for my right to be heard, my right to be treated respectfully and professionally in return, my right to draw boundaries.
“I am a strong woman and I’m not going to apologise for that.”
She also strained relations with Grey’s Anatomy executive producer and head writer Shonda Rhimes when she unexpectedly pulled her name from Emmy consideration in 2008.
She released a statement to the New York Times at the time saying: “I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination.
“And in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention.”
But, as the chat with Vieira shows, her reputation didn’t sit well with her.
In a chat with radio broadcaster, Howard Stern in 2016: “I had never done therapy . . . until a couple of years ago, and I started going because of the scrutiny, and I was not handling it well. I was feeling completely like the biggest piece of sh*t on the bottom of your shoe.
“I was really struggling with it, and how not to take it all really personally, and not to feel there’s something really deeply wrong with me.”
Katherine Heigl
She gave Vanity Fair a second interview that year, saying she wished she’d just shut up’ instead of whining about the cult TV medical drama.
The video, which was published to TikTok last week by @womennsoul, has received over 1.9 million views, with Katherine Heigl’s admirers flocking in droves.
One commented: “She had boundaries and people didn’t like them so they called her rude. Got it,” a comment, which has been liked a huge 3927 times.
