Katherine Heigl Addresses Her 'Grey's Anatomy' Exit With Ellen Pompeo: 'I Was So Naive'

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Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter It’s the most wonderful time of the year: “Actors on Actors” season, that is! Season 18 of the beloved Variety series, which celebrates the biggest stars in this year’s Emmys race, reached new heights on social media with over 85 million total views across platforms. This round’s pairings included Jenna Ortega with Elle Fanning, Pedro Pascal with Steven Yeun and a highly-anticipated “Grey’s Anatomy” reunion for Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo. Once again, the series took over TikTok during its two-week run, racking up over 66 million views and gaining over 100,000 new followers on the entertainment trade’s account. Top performing videos on the platform include Ellen Pompeo’s realization that Meredith Grey was the original “pick me girl,” Jeremy Allen White’s curiosity over Jennifer Coolidge’s most iconic “White Lotus” line and Jenna Ortega’s emotional appeal for kindness on social media. 

Al Pacino revealed he was having a baby at age 83 just weeks after fellow actor Robert De Niro announced he’d become a dad again at age 79The Godfather actor Al Pacino has become a dad for the fourth time as his girlfriend has just given birth to their child. The 83-year-old actor has welcomed a baby boy with his girlfriend Noor Alfallah, who is over five decades his junior. It was on 30 May that multiple sources first told American tabloid website TMZ that Alfallah, who has reportedly been dating the Scarface actor for around three years, was pregnant.

Ellen Pompeo might star in Grey’s Anatomy, but she isn’t quite down for revisiting her earliest seasons on the show in the present.

Ellen Pompeo thought it would be a lovely idea: introduce Grey’s Anatomy to her 12-year-old daughter, Stella, and bond by re-watching the show that launched her career. But just a few episodes into binging reality set in — she couldn’t stomach it.

Ellen Pompeo thought it would be a lovely idea: introduce  to her 12-year-old daughter, Stella, and bond by re-watching the show that launched her career. But just a few episodes into binging reality set in — she couldn't stomach it.Pompeo shared that tidbit with Katherine Heigl during their one-on-one interview for 's «Actors on Actors» series.

Flavio Gomez pmc-editorial-manager Variety and Rolling Stone return with their Truth Seekers Summit presented by SHOWTIME® on Aug. 2 in New York City, which will feature such headlining names as Rachel Maddow, Roy Wood, Jr., Dawn Porter and Liz Garbus. Maddow, host of the Emmy Award-winning “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, will be honored with the 2023 Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Award, recognizing her extensive accomplishments in journalism, followed by a Q&A about her experience in the news industry. “The Rachel Maddow Show” has won three Emmy Awards, and Maddow individually has received seven Emmy nominations honoring her in-depth and thorough take on the biggest stories of the day and week. Maddow has also written, produced and hosted three original podcasts for MSNBC – “Rachel Maddow Presents: Bag Man,” which won a DuPont Columbia Award and was nominated for a Peabody Award in 2020; “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” which received the first-ever Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for a podcast in 2023; and, most recently, the six-episode series “Rachel Maddow Presents: Deja News,” which debuts June 12, 2023.

Grey’s Anatomy almost wasn’t Grey’s Anatomy.

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Former “Grey’s Anatomy” co-stars Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl are together again — not in Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, mind you, but in a new joint interview for Variety.

It’s the reunion we’ve all been waiting for!

Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo sat down together for the first time in eight years to talk all things "Grey's Anatomy" and how their lives have evolved since. The hit ABC drama has been airing since 2005, making it the longest-running scripted primetime show for the network. "Grey's Anatomy" was renewed for a 20th season in March.

Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series.The pair’s interview, which went live Tuesday, most notably featured details about Heigl’s sudden departure from the hit drama, which, at the time, gave her a reputation for being “difficult.”“I was so naive,” admitted the “Firefly Lane” actress, who said onlookers often make her “the bad guy.” “I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly.

Katherine Heigl is speaking out about the controversy surrounding those interviews which led to her being labelled difficult.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey had many love interests over 19 seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy,” from Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd to Scott Speedman’s Nick Marsh, but such constant relationship conflict ultimately became a source of frustration for the actor. During a “Grey’s” reunion interview with Katherine Heigl as part ofVariety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Pompeo lamented over Meredith’s lack of growth in her love life. “When you stay on a show and with a character that long…for me, I really need to make sense of things and I really need to see evolution and growth,” Pompeo said. “And with network television specifically, there has to be some consistency for the audience. The audience wants familiarity. The writers get stuck in the consistency of something, and it’s harder, which I always would argue against and say, ‘We have such an incredible fan base. They’re so loyal. They’ll literally come along with us no matter what we do.’ I think it’s okay for Meredith to stop making bad decisions.”

Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo have officially reunited!

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When Ellen Pompeo sees Katherine Heigl before our photo shoot, she offers a greeting worthy of Barbra Streisand. “Hello, gorgeous!” Pompeo exclaims, giving Heigl a hug. And suddenly, it’s like no time has passed since “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered as a midseason replacement in 2005 — after ABC executives considered not airing the show at all — in the time slot after “Desperate Housewives.” Ultimately, these two women somehow not only surpassed the ladies of Wisteria Lane, they redefined pop culture. Throughout this reunion, we seriously take you back to the first days of TV’s longest running primetime medical drama. As “Grey’s Anatomy” became an overnight sensation, Pompeo and Heigl were launched into the stratosphere of fame together, for better and for worse. On the plus side, the Shonda Rhimes-created series revolutionized television, with women and actors of color leading the show. Yet the sudden, sometimes toxic attention — as well as spending those long days and nights on the infamously grueling set during the early years — taught both of them hard-won lessons. “If you cannot stand up for yourself in this industry, very few people will stand up for you,” Heigl says to Pompeo. “So you’d better learn how to, and you’d better be OK with them not liking you for it. ”

Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl reunited for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” interview series, 13 years after the latter left “Grey’s Anatomy”.

Seriously overdue. Grey’s Anatomy‘s Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl sat down for a frank discussion about their career for Variety‘s Actors on Actors, which debuted on Tuesday, June 6.