Josh Duhamel reflected on his experience working with co-star Katherine Heigl after claims emerged that she acts like a diva on set.
During the Monday, January 30, episode of the Chicks in the Office podcast, the actor was quick to defend Heigl and the reputation she’s garnered in the industry.
“Katie Heigl gets a bad rap, but she’s awesome,” the Shotgun Wedding actor shared. “She’s great.”
“She probably said some things that she wishes she could’ve taken back, but my experience, on and off screen with her, was awesome.”
According to Us Weekly, Duhamel and the 27 Dresses actress, 44, starred alongside one another in the 2010 film, Life As We Know It. At the time, Heigl was perceived as someone who was “difficult” to work with due to her tense words about her experience on Grey’s Anatomy, which led to her eventual exit.
In 2008, Katherine withdrew her name from Emmy consideration for Grey's Anatomy— despite picking up the trophy a year prior—stating at the time that she didn't feel she was "given the material" to warrant a nomination. She would later apologise to the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes and said her statement "wasn't fair" to the show's writers.
Duhamel, 50, added that he feels Heigl, 44, may have been mischaracterised due to a few isolated incidents.
“I think that’s probably what happened to Katie is that, you know, she had a couple bad moments and that’s what everybody wants to just — that’s her label now, and it’s not really fair,” he said.
In 2016, Heigl confessed to Howard Stern that she actually ended up having to go to therapy because of her bad reputation, via Page Six.
“I was really struggling with it, and how not to take it all really personally, and not to feel there’s something really deeply wrong with me,” the Firefly Lane star told the radio host.
Apart from Duhamel, Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo recently praised Heigl for speaking up for herself. “I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working — and she was 100 percent right,” she said.
“Had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero, but she’s ahead of her time. [She] made a statement about our crazy hours and, of course, let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful.”