Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo to Reunite 13 Years After ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo are set to reunite 13 years after starring together on Grey’s Anatomy. ET reports that the pair will be joining one another for an episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors interview series. The Actors on Actors videos will debut on June 6 on Variety.com, with the issue hitting newsstands on June 7.

Heigl starred as Dr. Izzie Stevens in the first six seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, but left in 2010, accusing the show of unfair work conditions. During a past appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman, the actress claimed that actors were subjected to “17-hour” workdays, which she felt were “cruel and mean.” This did not go over well with fans of the medical drama, who criticized Heigl’s comments.

Fast forward to 2022, Pompeo — who is a producer on Grey’s Anatomy — spoke out on her podcast, Tell Me, and defended her former co-star. “I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working. And she was 100 percent right,” Pompeo said. “Had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero.” 

She added, “But she’s ahead of her time, made a statement about our crazy hours and, of course, let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful. When the truth is, she’s 100 percent honest and it’s absolutely correct what she said. She was f—ing ballsy for saying it. And she was telling the truth. She wasn’t lying.” Pompeo went on to note that, while Heigl was right to call out the working conditions, things have improved in the years since her exit. “I’m very lucky now with my schedule on Grey’s. I get to cut back. And overall I’m happy for the production as a whole because we have cut back tremendously,” she said at the time. “Back in the day, we used to do crazy, crazy hours. That alone will make you insane.”

Notably, earlier this year, Pompeo said her Grey’s Anatomy goodbyes, with her character Meredith Grey leaving Seattle, Washington’s fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for good. In a resurfaced interview from 2022, the actress explains why she opted to exit the series. In December, Pompeo sat down for an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show and opened up about leaving the show after 19 seasons. 

“I feel super happy, but listen, the show has been incredible to me and I’ve loved a lot of the experience,” Pompeo said. “Listen, it’s just, I gotta mix it up a little bit.” The actress went on to say, “I’m 53. My brain is like scrambled eggs. I gotta do something new or I’m literally gonna turn into like, you can’t do the New York Times crossword puzzle every single day. I mean, 19 years, that’s more than people keep their kids in their house, like people keep their kids in their house until they’re 18 and then they send them off to college. So this is like me like going away to college.”‘

“I have a lot that I’m doing. I have three kids and so I take care of them, and it’s really important for me to be around for them and be more present for them,” Pompeo also told Barrymore, referring to the three children she shares with her husband Chris Ivery. “I’m gonna do a limited series for Hulu in the spring, which is a very cool, kind of crazy true story.”