Katherine Heigl has gained a reputation over the years for being difficult to work with, and now she’s speaking out about the way she’s been treated for saying what’s on her mind.
The 35-year old has earned headlines recently for comments made about her by Shonda Rhimes to The Hollywood Reporter; Rhimes, who writes Grey’s Anatomy and the hit show Scandal, said that she has a “no assholes” policy when it comes to her work.
Although her perfectionist tendencies coupled with Scandal’s breakneck story pace can wreak havoc on deadlines — “We’re always behind,” she admits — the operation runs smoothly and the cast is tight-knit. “There are no Heigls in this situation,” she says, choosing her words carefully. She adds later of her “no assholes” policy: “I don’t put up with bullshit or nasty people. I don’t have time for it.”
But Heigl, who has been doing press for her new show State Of Affairs, says she is just a very open, honest person who hates being filtered due to her celebrity status. The star says she doesn’t want her daughters to grow up thinking it’s not okay to speak their minds.
“I spent time trying to be more of a publicity packaged thing, and I just couldn’t. I couldn’t sleep at night. It kept me up. It felt so dishonest to me and it felt like such a cop out, like me saying that I am inherently wrong about how I feel about things or I am inherently wrong if I have something to say. I don’t like that for my daughters. I don’t like that for my girlfriends. I don’t like that for any woman in this world to be made to feel like that. You voice, your opinion and you are made to feel like if someone disagrees with you, that now you’re a bad person?” she said in an interview with E! News. “At the end of the day, call me any name you want but I’m going to continue to stand up for myself and I’m going to continue to be heard and voice what I feel and not be bullied into being a doormat, just so you’ll call me a sweetheart. I don’t want to teach my kids that.”
Heigl has apologized for comments made in the past that were hurtful to those she worked with–such as calling the Judd Apatow film Knocked Up “sexist” and withdrawing her name from Emmy consideration for Grey’s Anatomy because she didn’t feel the writing for the show was up to par–and says she was naive as to the impact her words would have, and how far they would travel when it came to social media.