After six seasons as Izzie Stevens, surgery resident at Seattle Grace Hospital, Katherine Heigl left the cult series “Grey’s Anatomy. Officially for family reasons. But is it so safe?
If you’re a fan of the (very, very) long-running Grey’s Anatomy series, you won’t be offended by going over the history of the character of Izzie Stevens, surgical resident at Seattle Grace Hospital until her leaving shortly after merging with Mercy West Medical Center. A character embodied by Katherine Heigl over six seasons, who helped her a lot to put her career in orbit and had also earned her an Emmy Award in 2007.
In March 2010, Katherine Heigl confirmed to the microphone of Entertainment Weekly that she was leaving the series, and would not return to complete the intrigues related to her character. She explained that her reasons were not professional but personal. She had just adopted a little girl with her husband, and wanted to devote herself to her family. “I know I’m disappointing Izzie fans. I’m sorry but I think I made the right choice” she specified.
A decision also taken after a long discussion with Shonda Rhimes, the creator and showrunner of the series, who apparently tried to convince her to stay. “Shonda wanted to try and get me to do both: parenting and acting in Grey’s Anatomy. But there really wasn’t a good way to compromise so that my work schedules wouldn’t negatively affect the crew and the cast. “ said Katherine Heigl.
Here is the official version. The reality is actually a bit more nuanced, as the fire had been smoldering under the ice for a while. In 2008, for example, Katherine Heigl attacked the screenwriters of the series, announcing that she refused to be nominated for the Emmy Awards because she did not have, according to her, sufficient material to deliver a good performance. .
In the summer of 2009, she spoke on the set of David Letterman’s Late show about working conditions that she no longer accepted: “Last Wednesday, on our first day of filming for the season, we spent 17 hours on set! I think that’s cruel. I’m saying it here hoping they’re ashamed.”
ABC
Published in the United States in September 2021, the book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy, written by journalist Lynette Rice, lifts a corner of the veil behind the scenes of the series, and the departure of Heigl. It would seem that tensions were actually high between showrunner Shonda Rhimes and the actress: “She wanted to leave because it was way too hard working with Shonda Rhimes” testifies one of the sources of the book.
With a little extra male/female rivalry for the road, between her and actor Patrick Dempsey: “Katie was just targeted for having an opinion, for being successful, for not kissing the ring. She became a lot bigger than Patrick Dempsey, but she didn’t have a penis” explains another source of the book. Nice…