Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo are airing allll their Grey's Anatomy dirty laundry. In a recent interview with Variety, the former co-stars reminisced about the good 'ol days of performing surgery on cow hearts in Shonda Rhimes' era-defining ABC series, which wrapped its 19th season in May. The two women also shared an emotional heart-to-heart about Heigl's shocking departure from the series in 2010, which garnered her a reputation for being "ungrateful" and "unprofessional": "I was just vibrating at way too high of a level of anxiety," she recalled.
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Pompeo has anchored Grey's Anatomy since its 2005 debut, but the actress is taking something of a step back for the show's upcoming Season 20. While her character left the show's main Seattle plot in favor of Boston last season, Meredith Grey will still appear in Season 20. "It's not a complete goodbye, and I think we've got an interesting story to tell," Pompeo told Variety, adding that she's excited to ditch her scrubs for a bit while filming the upcoming Hulu series The Orphan: "I haven't played another character in 18 years. That's crazy — crazy town, crazy town."
Heigl, for her part, knows all too well the repercussions of departing a fan-favorite show. She threw in the towel on her beloved character Izzie Stevens in 2010, after Grey's Anatomy's sixth season. While the media circus that ensued focused on Heigl's disappointment that her character hadn't taken a more central role in the series, the Firefly Lane alum chalks up her departure to the immense pressures of being on TV's number-one show.
"I was up here in my head, in my gut, in my mind, in my life. I was just vibrating at way too high of a level of anxiety. For me, it's all a bit of a blur," Heigl told the outlet, adding that she didn't expect to receive such backlash after criticizing the series: "I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff. I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox. There was no part of me that imagined a bad reaction. I felt really justified in how I felt about it and where I was coming from."
The fandom's furious reaction to Heigl's departure was as bad as any of today's online celebrity hate campaigns. But Heigl has a sense of humor about it all, joking, "Damn it, I should have waited for Twitter. I'd be huge!"
Pompeo came to her former co-star's defense, citing the intense pressure of being on the series at its height: "I'd like to see other people try to walk a mile in your shoes during that time, and let's see how they would've handled it."
But there were certainly bright spots amidst the chaos. Heigl and Pompeo looked back fondly on the hundreds of fake surgeries they performed on real animal parts in the show's early seasons. "Your feet are tired, and you're staring at this cow heart and bowel," Pompeo recalled. Gross-out stories aside, both women are immensely proud of the legacy Grey's has left. In one hilarious anecdote, Pompeo recalled the time her daughter's friends unknowingly quoted Meredith Grey's iconic "Pick me" speech.
"I'm like, "What's a pick me girl?" They were like, "You know, girls who are like, 'Pick me, choose me!'" And I'm like, "Hello?! Do you know who invented the 'pick me girl'?"
As for her soft departure from the show that made her an icon, Ellen Pompeo is not belaboring the point. She won't be heartbroken to finally bid adieu to Meredith Grey.
"Oh no, I've been on the show so long, I'm happy to let that go. We're past that point," she told Variety, adding that the Grey's legacy will live on. "I felt so happy to be able to step away, and I felt like I accomplished something incredible."
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