Katherine Heigl Was ‘Crying’ and Panicked After ‘Actors on Actors’ With Ellen Pompeo, Editor Claims

Katherine Heigl allegedly felt like she said too much after her candid Actors on Actors conversation with Grey’s Anatomy costar Ellen Pompeo that Variety released in 2023.

During the Thursday, December 11, episode of the Viall Files podcast, Variety editor-at-large Kate Aurthur joined host Nick Viall and recalled some of the most iconic celebrity one-on-one conversations that the publication hosted throughout the years.

When asked about her favorite Actors on Actors interviews, the journalist recalled the time Heigl, 47, and Pompeo, 56, reunited to discuss their time on the hit ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.

“Katherine Heigl like really went there and then was in a huge panic afterwards that she had said too much, and we had to talk her down,” Aurthur claimed.

“Her manager freaked out, like she was maybe not going to release the footage,” the editor continued. “We were like, ‘You agreed to that.’”

However, Aurthur recalled that the actress — who played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the long-running show for six seasons before her controversial exit — got too comfortable talking to Pompeo, who played the series’ title character.

“She was like crying — and I don’t think she would mind if I said [that] — but I was like, ‘The world has changed. The world has caught up to you. You were right most of the time. And people now understand that.’ And I was like, ‘It’s going to be great,’” Aurthur said.

“And then it was great,” she continued. “Her husband was the one who’d come with her [to the taping]. … And then her manager was like, ‘You were right,’ when it came out.”

Viall noted, “Katherine Heigl is someone who’s been caught up in controversy, and people have attacked her over the years for speaking her mind.”

“You get in situations where you feel like you can’t say anything right,” he added.

Before Heigl’s Grey’s Anatomy exit, she publicly made blunt remarks about her experience on set and with the show’s writers, earning a reputation of being difficult to work with.

In the 2023 Actors on Actors chat, she addressed her 2010 exit from the show, telling Pompeo that she was “naïve” during that period of her life and explaining that she “got on my soapbox” and had “some things to say.”

“I felt really passionate about this stuff,” Heigl told Pompeo. “And I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox, but there was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from.”