Grey’s Anatomy has turn out to be one of the crucial beloved and longest-running TV exhibits of all time. The present started in 2005 and simply wrapped Season 19, with over 400 episodes and counting.
Over the course of 19 seasons, Gray’s Anatomy has had so many iconic storylines, characters, and extra — it is exhausting to summarize all the legendary TV moments this present has given us.
After all, alongside the best way, characters and actors have departed Seattle Grace/Gray Sloan, and people have made for among the most impactful moments. Most not too long ago, Ellen Pompeo left as a series regular after taking part in Meredith Gray because the pilot episode.
Whereas Ellen hasn’t left the present fully — she nonetheless supplies the voiceover, and he or she appeared within the Season 19 finale — it was an enormous change for the collection, and marked dropping the final member of the unique intern group as a collection common.
Out of the unique interns, one of the crucial notable departures got here when Katherine Heigl left the present as Izzie Stevens in the course of Season 6.
On the time, Katherine’s departure got here after a number of behind-the-scenes moments the place she criticized Gray’s Anatomy. Notably, Katherine stepped out of the 2008 Emmys race, which was reportedly seen as a “swipe at producers for diminishing her presence on the collection.”
Katherine’s resolution to go away that 12 months’s Emmys race led to individuals saying she was criticizing the writers — and probably Shonda Rhimes — and it led to numerous hate being thrown at Katherine for years. Specifically she was labeled as “troublesome” to work with.
Now, 13 years after Katherine’s final Gray’s Anatomy episode, she and Ellen reunited for Variety’s Actors on Actors collection the place they mentioned their time on Gray’s Anatomy collectively, and likewise all the pieces surrounding Katherine’s departure.
“When Izzie left…there was simply a lot happening,” Ellen started when speaking concerning the emotion the early Gray’s actors delivered to their performances and the way it impacted the storylines. “It is actually exhausting to point out up on set when there’s a lot…after which there wasn’t even social media. There’s a lot consideration.”
She continued, saying, “It felt like there was numerous consideration on all the pieces we did. On a regular basis. And all the pieces was amplified, and that added to the emotion, and in some way, that made the scenes higher, and that made the present higher, and that made the present extra well-liked. After which, Izzie leaves the present, and that was emotional for everyone.”
Wanting again at the moment in her life, Katherine defined the anxiousness she felt on the top of her Gray’s Anatomy fame. “I used to be simply vibrating at means too excessive of a degree of tension,” she started. “For me, it is all a little bit of a blur, and it took me years to learn to take care of that, to grasp it.”
Katherine stated that interval was additionally when she felt she lacked “self-confidence.” She stated, “I might not commerce something for my 20s. I completely had no concept who I used to be and what I wished and who I used to be speculated to be and who to make blissful. Simply huge lack of self-confidence. After which, Gray’s hit. The success of Gray’s hit, and I felt, I believe it was borrowed confidence.”
She continued, saying, “I began getting actual mouthy as a result of I did have rather a lot to say. And there have been sure boundaries and issues that I used to be not okay with being crossed. In the event you can’t rise up for your self on this business, only a few individuals will rise up for you. So that you higher learn to, and also you higher be okay with them not liking you for it.” With Ellen including that it is a “privilege” to even get to that place as effectively.
Talking on to her Gray’s departure and all the behind the scenes drama that got here with it, Katherine started, “I used to be so naive. I obtained on my soapbox, and I had some issues to say, and I felt actually obsessed with these things. I felt actually strongly. I felt so strongly that I additionally obtained a megaphone out on my soapbox. There was no a part of me that imagined a nasty response.”
“I felt actually justified in how I felt about it and the place I used to be coming from. I’ve spent most of my life — I believe most girls do — being in that people-pleasing mode. It’s actually disconcerting while you really feel like you have got actually displeased all people. It was not my intention to take action, however I had some issues to say, and I didn’t suppose I used to be going to get such a robust response,” she continued.
Katherine additionally talked about how she’s typically seen as “the unhealthy man” or the “villain,” and it is one thing she’s discovered to take care of. With Ellen including that she did not perceive till her personal massive contract negotiation for Grey’s Anatomy and new salary landed within the information, and he or she was instructed by her supervisor to be “ready to be unpopular” due to it.
Katherine stated it took years to tune out all the pieces that was being stated about her, saying, “I used to be in my late 20s. It took me till in all probability my mid-to-late-30s to essentially get again to tuning out all the noise and going, ‘However who’re you? Who’re you with out all the opinions of who you might be? Are you this unhealthy particular person? Are you ungrateful? Are you unprofessional? Are you troublesome?'”
She continued, “As a result of I used to be confused! I assumed possibly I used to be. I actually believed that model, and felt such disgrace for such a very long time, after which needed to go, ‘Wait. Who am I listening to? I’m not even listening to myself. I do know who I’m.’ I do not want anyone to inform me who I’m.”
Wanting again on Katherine’s departure, Ellen added that, on the time, Katherine was one particular person talking out about working conditions on set, and different issues that have been occurring, and he or she was nearly “forward of [her] time” as a result of now “the entire world will get to criticize all the pieces and inform all people to fuck off and it is okay…however when [she] did it…”
“Pay attention, no person likes a assured lady,” Ellen continued. “They’d slightly you be a girl on the lookout for your confidence than you really be a assured lady as a result of that makes them nervous. … Candy, they will deal with. Sturdy, they cannot.”
As a longtime Gray’s Anatomy fan — sure, I nonetheless watch reside each single Thursday — this dialog between Katherine and Ellen is one I drastically loved (and did not notice how a lot I wanted it).
