In a new cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Shonda Rhimes was more candid than ever before regarding her opinion of Katherine Heigl, a former star of her ABC series “Grey’s Anatomy.”
It all started in June 2008, when the actress withdrew her name from Emmy consideration claiming the writing for her character that year wasn’t good enough to earn a nomination.
“I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention,” she famously told the LA Times. “In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.”
Rhimes took that as a dis on her writing staff. She tells the Hollywood Reporter what she’s learned since that experience, and how she applies her “no a**holes” policy to her hit series “Scandal.”
“There are no Heigls in this situation…I don’t put up with bullsh*t or nasty people,” she tells the trade publication. “I don’t have time for it.”
Heigl’s new NBC drama “State of Affairs” (premiering Nov. 17 at 10 p.m.) finds her playing a CIA analyst tasked with assembling the President’s Daily Briefing. (The president is played by Alfre Woodard.)
During a TCA panel for the show in July, Heigl explained why she chose this particular role for her television return. Plus, the actress was asked about the “difficult” label that has followed her since “Grey’s Anatomy,” and how she’s viewed her acting roles in the past.
Back in The Hollywood Reporter.
Rhimes also addressed the recent New York Times article that pegged her as an “angry black woman.”
She explained why she didn’t request a retraction from the paper:
“In this world in which we all feel we’re so full of gender equality and we’re a postracial [society] and Obama is president, it’s a very good reminder to see the casual racial bias and odd misogyny from a woman written in a paper that we all think of as being so liberal.”
