Katherine Heigl who will be back on a TV screen later this year with NBC’s “State of Affairs” is finally opening up about her years in the dark alleys of failure in Hollywood. Heigl was America’s It Girl for a while with movie hits like Knocked Up, and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” but things changed pretty quickly when Hollywood insiders started labeling her as a difficult person to work with.
She also publicly criticized some of her most successful projects.
The negative press was later followed by some bad reviews and stumbles at the box office with films like One for the Money and The Big Wedding. These events lead to some people writing her career off and Heigl started keeping a very low media profile.
Fast forward to 2014, NBC decides to pick up her CIA drama “State of Affairs” for the fall season and the Life as We Know It actress’ presence in magazines and newspapers is starting to be felt again. The former “Grey’s Anatomy” star sat down for an interview with Marie Claire UK where she stated that during her dark turn she felt like Hollywood had betrayed her. She explained:
“The thing that was my best friend for a long time suddenly turned on me. And I didn’t expect it. I was taken by surprise and angry at it for betraying me.”
For Katherine Heigl her career low point had more to do with bad project choices than her difficult reputation. She never admits that the “hard to work with” tag may have played a part in her fall from Hollywood grace, instead she blames her addiction to doing romantic comedies.
The mother-of-two and wife of singer Josh Kelley said:
“I had an amazing time. I love romantic comedies. I was so stoked to be doing them. But maybe I hit it a little too hard. I couldn’t say no. There’s nothing wrong with them, but maybe I overloaded my audience. I should have done a superhero movie or a psychological thriller.”
She also added:
“I stopped challenging myself. It became a bit by rote and, as a creative person, that can wear you down. That was part of why I took that time off, to ask myself, “What do I want? What am I looking for?” and shut down all the noise.”
For some in the entertainment industry “time off” is often a synonym for forced vacation. Either way Katherine Heigl has been giving a chance to redeem herself.
