Katherine Heigl says her response was “dumb” when she told Vanity Fair that the film “Knocked Up” was sexist, but claims she never apologized for it.
On Wednesday, the actress appeared on “The Howard Stern Show.” Stern asked her to explain what happened between her, “Knocked Up” director Judd Apotow and actor Seth Rogen in 2008 after being interviewed by Vanity Fair about the movie.
During the interview with Vanity Fair the actress said, “It was 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,”she told the magazine.
Heigl told Stern that her response was “immature” and “dumb” when they asked her to comment on what feminists were saying about the movie.
“It was, again, one of those situations, it was a huge opportunity for me. I was being interviewed for Vanity Fair. Like, I was on the cover of Vanity Fair,” she told Stern. “It was a huge big deal for me.”
“And the journalist…just said, ‘You know a lot of women felt it was a little sexist’ so then I felt obligated to answer that and so I tried in my very sort of ungracious way to answer why I felt that it maybe was a little,” Heigl explained.
Stern told her that she broke the rule in Hollywood of never talking bad about a movie you’ve starred in. He then asked her if she ever apologized to Apatow and Rogen.
Heigl told him it wasn’t until the day she ran into Rogen in a restaurant that she was even aware that the situation was that “bad”.
His words of advice to her, “it’s never too late to apology”. She replied “yeah, I probably should.”
The actress also talked about receiving negative press and being labeled “difficult to work with,” even seeking therapy to deal with how she was feeling.
“I can only say that I certainly don’t see myself as being difficult and I don’t intend to be difficult,” she said. “I don’t think my mother sees herself as being difficult…if I have ever disappointed somebody, it was never intentional.”