12 Ways Katherine Heigl Destroyed Her Own Career!
Published on April 11, 2014. Updated January 17, 2019Katherine Heigl was slated to be the next rom-com queen; however, her unprofessional behavior quickly destroyed her career and limited almost any possibility of a comeback to the stardom she was expected to achieve. Katherine’s once promising career has lost momentum and industry insiders are almost always talking more about her diva-like behavior on set and less about her acting abilities. Here are 12 ways Katherine Heigl has destroyed her own career:
12. Criticizing Knocked Up
Heigl called her first big movie “Knocked Up” – which was lauded by critics and helped her make the transition from television to the big screen – sexist. “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****… It was hard for me to love the movie,” she told Vanity Fair.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com11. Insulting Grey’s Writing Quality
In 2008, the “Knocked Up” star turned down an opportunity to win an Emmy for her role in “Grey’s Anatomy” because the writing wasn’t good enough. “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,” Heigl said in a press release. Of course, this was an obvious shot at the writers and Shonda Rhimes’ herself and many in the industry couldn’t believe Heigl’s blatant disrespect, and being so ungrateful as an actor or actress dreams of an Emmy nomination.
Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com10. Slamming Grey’s Producers
In 2007, she criticized the producers of “Grey’s Anatomy” to Vanity Fair because she felt they changed her character to draw more ratings. To make matters worse, Heigl’s “rumored” attitude problems were further confirmed by Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes who said in 2014 that she has a “No a–holes policy,” to which she states, “I don’t put up with bull—-or nasty people. I don’t have time for it.” She then named Heigl directly saying, “There are no Heigls in this situation,” while working on her then-new show Scandal. Once the big names in the industry start publicly addressing your name with such negative connotations, it is almost impossible to be someone that networks and producers desire to work with.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com9. Starting Unnecessary Lawsuits
She is suing a drugstore, Duane Reade, for $6 million for using a paparazzi photo of her shopping there on Twitter. “Use of plaintiff’s image under these circumstances improperly exploited plaintiff’s name and likeness, as a celebrity, for defendant’s commercial advertising and purposes of trade, without authorization,” the lawsuit said.
Featureflash / Shutterstock.com8. Being Difficult On Set
The “27 Dresses” star is rumored to be incredibly difficult on set. One source said, “She can cost you time every single day of shooting. Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the trailer, questioning the script every single day.” To make matters worse, if Heigl herself wasn’t difficult enough to work with, apparently her mother who also serves as her manager is also extremely hard to work with. “Nancy isn’t a producer … but she thinks that she has a right to make decisions and she has angered a lot of people in the process. … Katherine doesn’t know when to stay quiet and she has damaged her reputation, and her mother encouraged that behavior,” a source revealed.
Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
7. Diva Behavior
When she was promoting the movie “27 Dresses” overseas, Heigl allegedly acted like a diva. “There were movie-star demands – big rooms, the mother there, all the stuff. ‘We need the presidential suite at The Bristol!’ It was just a sense of entitlement. The biggest stars don’t do that kind of thing,” a source said.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com6. Being Impossible to Work With
In 2010, “The Killers” star’s publicist quit. Although Heigl has never opened about what prompted her publicist to quit, most people believe it was because of her diva-like behavior. “PR people rarely resign from accounts, especially when starting their own company, and the client in question is a legitimate movie star,” a source told Deadline.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
5. Asking for Crowd Funding for Her Film
For her new independent project “Jenny’s Wedding,” Heigl and the film’s producers started an Indigogo campaign to raise $150,000 to fund post-production. When asked if she would make up the difference if the campaign wasn’t successful, the actress said that she couldn’t because she hasn’t earned much in the last few years. Many people believe this is because she has burned too many bridges in Hollywood.
s_bukley / Shutterstock.com4. Being Totally Oblivious
The “One For the Money” actress mentioned in 2012 that she would love to return to “Grey’s Anatomy” to see what her character Izzy was up to, but that interest wasn’t reciprocated by the producers of the show.
Featureflash / Shutterstock.com3. Being Ungrateful
Heigl didn’t get on too well with Sofia Vergara, her co-star from the movie “New Year’s Eve.” “Katherine’s always complaining about having to stand outside in the cold for long periods of time, and Sofia can’t stand her whining. Finally, Sofia told her to be grateful that she has the role in the first place. That clearly didn’t go over well,” an insider said.
Featureflash / Shutterstock.com2. Too Little Too Late
Although it is clear that Heigl didn’t seem ashamed of her behavior or comments that earned her such a bad reputation so quickly in Hollywood, there is no denying that her career definitely suffered, and she waited far too long to try to remedy her image. Despite damaging her reputation in the early 2000’s she didn’t make any effort to apologize until many years later, which made her attempts seem insincere “[You think] at some point I’ll get a call saying ‘Sorry, I was tired…’ and then the call never comes,” Judd Apatow said in 2009. It wasn’t until 2016 that Heigl finally opened up about her comments about both Knocked Up and Grey’s Anatomy and finally admitted what she did was wrong. “I had never done therapy until a couple years ago. I started going because of the [pauses] scrutiny. I was not handling it well. I was feeling completely like the biggest piece of s–t on the bottom of your shoe,” she told Howard Stern “I was really struggling with it and how to not take it all personally and not to feel that there’s something really deeply wrong with me.”
Photo by Broadimage/REX Shutterstock1. Picking The Wrong Projects
While her poor reputation meant a slew of bombed films, or very little work, Heigl still continued to try pave her way in the industry, but even when she tried to rectify her on-set behavior, she couldn’t get a hit and her career has continued to suffer. In 2014, she returned to TV as the lead of the series State of Affairs, but the series flopped and only lasted one season before it was cancelled. Yet again, Heigl’s rumored poor relationship with PR agents came to haunt her as it was reported that she couldn’t properly promote State of Affairs because publicists didn’t want to set up interviews for her. Following the failure of State of Affairs, Heigl appeared in two small films and had no work in 2016 before landing the lead in another new series, Doubt. Much like her previous attempt, Doubt only lasted one season before it was cancelled. In 2018, Heigl made perhaps her biggest career move since the Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up drama when she joined the cast of the hit series Suits, however she joined as the series was winding down and many had lost interest after the exit of stars Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams.
EPA/NINA PROMMER