Katherine Heigl: Fans, Hollywood ‘Betrayed Me’ Amid Career Swoon
July 2 2014, Published 12:30 p.m. ET
As Katherine Heigl tries to reverse a career swoon that would make Lindsay Lohan blush, the actress has finally broken her silence about how she felt during her tumble off the A-list, some of the reasons she feels caused it to happen, and where it almost took her.
Heigl, 35, told Marie Claire UK’s August edition about how she felt betrayed by fans and Tinseltown the past few years, with the dry spell on her IMDb page ending this fall with a role on NBC's State Of Affairs.
“The thing that was my best friend for a long time suddenly turned on me,” the former Grey's Anatomy said. “And I didn't expect it. I was taken by surprise and angry at it for betraying me.”
Heigl said she “had a moment” where she seriously considered abandoning her acting career altogether for a decidedly less stressful existence.
“I was thinking I'd maybe open a knitting store, get my money out of retirement accounts and live off that, live off the land,” she told the magazine. “I had my moment where it all seemed so complicated and all I wanted to do was simplify.”
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Heigl said one career misstep was an onslaught of fluff roles in romantic comedies that might have burnt out the audience, and dulled her edge.
“I had an amazing time … but maybe I hit it a little too hard,” the star of lighthearted laughers like 27 Dresses and Knocked Up said. “I couldn't say, ‘No. I stopped challenging myself. It became a bit by rote and, as a creative person, that can wear you down.
“That was part of why I took that time off, to ask myself, "‘What do I want? What am I looking for?’ and shut down all the noise.”
The Emmy winner said her creative juices have been flowing since taking the new role, proudly admitting that “there's a part of me that's a Hollywood animal as well.”
She added that with the part, in which she plays a CIA agent, she feels like she’s “finally rolling into the next phase of … adulthood.”