Now that her Knocked Up paycheck has cleared, Katherine Heigl
has a confession to make. She thinks the movie is “a little sexist.” Oh, really? A film where an underachieving, slovenly slacker hooks up with an overachieving, polished professional is “a little sexist”? A film where the men get almost all the laugh lines and the women get almost all the nag lines is “a little sexist”? Who’d a thunk it? As Katherine told Vanity Fair for the January 2008 cover story:
“[The film is] a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I’m playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you’re portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie.”A-ha! As much as I appreciated the goofy appeal of Judd Apatow‘s summer sleeper, it also bothered me. First, it was so very straight that the gayest thing about it was all the times the characters called each other “gay.” Second, its continuation of the gorgeous girl—dumpy dude trend irked me. And, finally, it made male arrested development cool and, intentionally or not, told them that they too could get a hottie to have their babies. Still, if Katherine had problems with the movie, why did she sign on in the first place? I mean, that portrayal of women had to be in the script, right? And if she didn’t like her killjoy character, why didn’t she say something during filming? But Knocked Up isn’t the only project Katherine has issues with. She also has a bone to pick with the happenings at Seattle Grace. In particular, she has problems with her character Izzie’s affair with George (her real-life best friend T.R. Knight).
“That was kind of a big change for Izzie, wasn’t it, after she was so up on her moral high ground. They really hurt somebody, and they didn’t seem to be taking a lot of responsibility for it. I have a really hard time with that kind of thing. I’m maybe a little too black-and-white about it. I don’t really know Izzie very well right now. She’s changed a lot. I’m trying to figure her out and keep her real.”And why does she think Izzie changed?
“It was a ratings ploy. It was absolutely something that shocked people; it wasn’t predictable, and people didn’t see it coming. It’s our fourth season; there’s not a lot of spontaneity left. And business is business; I understand that, but I want there to be some cooperation between the business end and the creative end, so there’s some way of keeping it real.”So, wow, that’s oddly candid. What do you think of Heigl’s after-the-fact confessions? And do you agree? More important, will the wardrobe department at Grey’s Anatomy please take note of Katherine’s Vanity Fair shoot apparel? ‘Cause, uh, wow.
