Katherine Heigl is setting the record straight about her supposedly turning down an Emmy nomination for her work as Dr. Isobel “Izzie” Stevens on Grey’s Anatomy.
During an appearance on the Let’s Be Clear podcast, host Shannen Doherty was running down Heigl’s impressive resume and applauding her “perseverance as a woman, as an actor,” before adding she doesn’t know anyone in Hollywood who has ever turned down an Emmy nomination.
That’s been the narrative since 2008, when Heigl at the time came under fire when she seemingly inferred that she turned down a nomination for her role on the ABC medical drama. At the time she said, “I do not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination.”
All these years later, the 45-year-old actress is clearing up that rumor.
“Well, I didn’t [turn down an Emmy nomination] and everybody keeps saying that. I didn’t turn it down,” she said. “You know, you have to submit yourself. You have to submit your work and then they deliberate and then they decide if they want to give you a nomination. I just didn’t submit my work that year … I should have said nothing. I should have said, ‘Oh, I forgot [to submit my work],’ because it created such a maelstrom that was so unnecessary, and it really was.”
She continued, “I was kind of trying to make a bit of a snarky point about my material that year, but I was also just not feeling my material. I didn’t think I had anything that warranted even the consideration for a nomination. I just wasn’t proud of my work. I would never be so bold or so arrogant to turn down a nomination. I would take that nomination if it came my way. I’d be down. But I just knew there wasn’t anything that would really warrant one that year, and I was trying to be honorable. I guess I was trying to have some integrity. I wasn’t trying to be a d**k.”
In 2010, tensions between her and creator Shonda Rhimes were running high to the point that, in March of that year, they reached an agreement to immediately release her from her contract. The Jan. 21 episode in 2010 marked her final appearance on the show as Izzie. She would later make a surprise cameo in season 16.
Last year, Heigl and her Grey’s Anatomy co-star, Ellen Pompeo, sat down for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series and chatted about her controversial exit. Heigl admitted that, looking back now, she was “so naive” in how she handled the situation.
“There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction,” she said at the time. “I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from. I’ve spent most of my life — I think most women do — being in that people-pleasing mode. It’s really disconcerting when you feel like you have really displeased everybody. It was not my intention to do so, but I had some things to say, and I didn’t think I was going to get such a strong reaction.”
Heigl recently reunited with her co-stars at, of all places, the Primetime Emmy Awards in January. Ahead of taking the stage, she spoke to ET about the highly anticipated reunion.
“It’s hard,” she admits of getting the cast together. “I came in from Utah Sunday and then came here and did a rehearsal with them.”
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