Seth Rogen Says Katherine Heigl Didn’t Deserve Backlash After ‘Knocked Up’ Comments

Back in 2007, Katherine Heigl was on a career high. Heigl was breaking out as the star in the ensemble drama, Grey’s Anatomy, and her career as a movie star was a hit and looked like it was only getting better. Her first outing as a film star in the raucous comedy, Knocked Up, starring Seth Rogen was an overnight success.

A year after it came out in theaters, Heigl was already getting the reputation of being difficult to work with by biting the hand that fed her. Over a period of two years, the actress, who won an Emmy for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens in 2007, had burnt bridges. Before she took herself out of the Emmys race the year after she took home her award, and then blamed it on the lack of material she was given, and even before she complained about her long hours working on Grey’s Anatomy, Heigl’s reputation for being opinionated started with her comments on Knocked Up.

The long and winding road of Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen’s feelings about “Knocked Up.” https://t.co/YEH0GPqzFJ pic.twitter.com/Qd9xkFybeL

— E! News (@enews) August 8, 2016

It seemed as though Heigl didn’t care about the success of the film because, as it turns out, she really didn’t like how she was depicted in the film. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, the actress slammed the film.

At the time she called it “a little sexist” and went on to explain her thoughts on the film.

“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 b—h; 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.”

It was a bit of a head scratcher for Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow, who create an “anything goes” environment on set, and at the time, not only did Katherine Heigl get blowback from her comments, but Rogen and Apatow didn’t take it well either.

Seth Rogen finally shares details about his decade-long feud with Katherine Heigl: https://t.co/VQJiYPx3jo pic.twitter.com/AbdXeA4AbD

— Esquire (@esquire) August 10, 2016

It was believed that there was a feud between Rogen and Heigl after her comments. Since the comments, Katherine hasn’t been approached to be in any Apatow or Rogen films. That said, Rogen isn’t actually angry with Heigl, and he said that she didn’t deserve the major backlash that she received after her comments on the film.

While promoting his new film, Sausage Party, Rogen told Howard Stern about the non-issue.

“I think when that happens — also your trust feels somewhat betrayed. We have a very open process. We’re like, ‘You have the ability to say anything at any moment. I don’t like how I’m coming across here.'”

He continued, “I respect the fact that maybe that perhaps she realizes it has hurt her career, and I don’t want that to have happened to her at all. Because I’ve said a thousand stupid things, and I really like her. Especially if she is being honest, the only people who, in this situation, should in any way take anything from it is me and Judd. Because we are the ones she was talking about. For other people to not work with her because she didn’t like her experience with us is crazy.”

Prior to Rogen’s confession, Heigl said in a different interview that it was stupid to criticize the film. Years later, when she spoke with Howard Stern, she said her comments were “immature” and “dumb.” She went on to explain that being on the cover of Vanity Fair was a big deal, so when the journalist told her that women were offended by the film and found it sexist, she felt obligated to answer to that.

“I tried in my very sort of ungracious way to answer why I felt that it maybe was a little.”

While on Stern’s show, Heigl said that she didn’t realize how bad the situation was until she ran into Seth at a restaurant. During the interview, Stern told Heigl, it’s “never too late to apologize.”

According to Rogen, Heigl hasn’t apologized for her comments, but it doesn’t seem like he’s expecting one from her, either.

[Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Sony Pictures/AP Images]