There was a time that Katherine Heigl was everywhere. After a stint on teen alien series Roswell, she did a slew of movies and landed a major role on Grey’s Anatomy. But it all might have been too much — and Katherine Heigl knows it.
Many of Heigl’s films were romcoms — Knocked Up, 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth. But her status as the charming meet-cute sweetheart quickly turned sour; she was eventually deemed an “uppity bitch” who made garbage movies.
Now she’s returning to television after an almost-four-year absence, starring in a new NBC show that is decidedly not a romcom: It’s about a CIA attaché who counsels the president. As part of her promotional duties, she’s on the cover of Marie Claire UK and talking about her romcom regrets (emphasis ours):
‘This thing that was my best friend for a long time suddenly turned on me,’ she said of the notorious Hollywood machine. ‘And I didn’t expect it. I was taken by surprise and angry at it for betraying me.
‘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.’
As a reminder: When the anti-Katherine-Heigl backlash reahed a fever pitch, Newsweek actually published a story titled “Why Is Kathereine Heigl So Annoying?” Would doing fewer romcoms have helped?