The former co-stars will sit down for Variety’s 'Actors on Actors' 13 years later.
Putting the past in the past. Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo are coming together again for a new season of Variety's "Actors on Actors" interview series.
The reunion comes 13 years after Heigl left Grey's Anatomy -- due to reported behind-the-scenes conflicts and public remarks that divided fans -- and just a few months after Pompeo's exit from the series after 19 seasons.
While the drama unfolded back in 2010 -- with Heigl decrying what she said were subpar working conditions and seemingly criticizing the show's writing at the time -- Pompeo reflected on Heigl's remarks and defended her former co-star in April 2022, during an episode of Pompeo's podcast, Tell Me.
During a 2009 appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman, Heigl, who exited her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens in 2010, blasted the medical drama for having a "17-hour" workday, which she called "cruel and mean."
"I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working. And she was 100 percent right," Pompeo said. "Had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero."
"But she’s ahead of her time, made a statement about our crazy hours and, of course, let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful. When the truth is, she's 100 percent honest and it's absolutely correct what she said," she continued. "She was f**king ballsy for saying it. And she was telling the truth. She wasn’t lying."
Pompeo, who serves as a producer and the star of Grey's, said the series' working conditions have improved in the years since Heigl's exit.
"I'm very lucky now with my schedule on Grey's. I get to cut back. And overall I'm happy for the production as a whole because we have cut back tremendously," she said. "Back in the day, we used to do crazy, crazy hours. That alone will make you insane."
Fans will get a chance to see Pompeo and Heigl possibly hash out their memories of their time on Grey's during their forthcoming "Actors on Actors" chat.
Apart from Heigl and Pompeo, some additional celeb pairings include Golden Globe winners Jeremy Allen White and Jennifer Coolidge, Wednesday's Jenna Ortega and The Great's Elle Fanning, Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey and Poker Face star Nataha Lyonne, Succession's Brian Cox and The English's Emily Blunt, Star Wars franchise stars Diego Luna and Hayden Christensen, and many others.
The "Actors on Actors" issue will hit newsstands on June 7, and the videos will debut June 6 on Variety.com.
RELATED CONTENT:
