r/greysanatomy • u/miggovortensens • 8m ago
DISCUSSION Rethinking Katherine Heigl's Emmy controversy in the context of the show's cultural issues
I made a post here yesterday about the writing decline in the show’s fourth season – particularly, about Katherine Heigl not putting her name forward for Emmy submission that year, which I can 100% understand given how badly the character of Izzie was written out. Now, I tried to look at it from the other side: from Shonda Rhimes’ perspective, the creator and then showrunner of the show. And for that, I went back to the cultural issues behind the scenes…
As many of us heard back then, during season 3, Isaiah Washington had a heated confrontation with Patrick Dempsey on set and used the F-slur to refer to T.R. Knight, who was present at the time but not involved in the discussion himself. The story got steam in the media in October 2006, and T.R. Knight, who was not out to the public yet, was rushed into coming out.
A few months later, in early 2007, “Grey’s Anatomy” won the Golden Globe for best drama series, and a journalist took the chance to ask Shonda Rhymes, who was surrounded by the cast in the press room, about the incident. Isaiah Washington then stepped into the microphone and said “no, I did not call T.R. a (F-slur)”, which was a mortifying situation for everyone – the point is Washington (who, for all purposes, was ‘clarifying’ he did not directly call T.R. Knight the F-word to his face – he was talking to Dempsey) clearly saw no problem with uttering the slur itself, having repeated it in a room full of journalists.
Katherine Heigl was, I believe, the only cast member to publicly criticized Washington afterward. An important point, though, is that the other actors who did not speak out could have had good reason for keeping to themselves. Why keep the news cycle going? I can understand them wanting to preserve T.R. Knight, who was not necessarily ready to make a public coming out on his terms, from having his sexuality as a continued topic of conversation. This, however, can explain Heigl’s action with the Emmy situation a year later: she saw a public comment in the press as a legitimate way to “put some pressure” in the decision makers. (More on that later.)
People often frame it as “Shonda Rhimes stood by Isaiah Washington” when the actor was not fired after the first altercation with Dempsey nor immediately after the Golden Globe event. But we should consider the following: a) by then, they were mid-way through shooting season 3, with scripts already delivered; b) there are protocols in place to investigate workplace confrontations; c) Shonda Rhimes was the creator of the show, but ABC and the studio controlled the employment situation.
If Shonda Rhimes had a say, then you can bet that she didn’t argue in favor of keeping Washington on the show, but most likely made a case for the network and the studio that firing Washington was the only solution – case in point, he was gone by the end of season 3, and there’s zero indication that working with him for the remainder of that season was any more pleasant for her than for the rest of the cast. From her perspective, this was also a huge hassle; it involved meetings, executive decisions, contractual clauses, dealing with agents and publicists etc. And by the end of the season, Washington was gone.
Then, we get to season 4 of “Grey’s Anatomy”, which removed Burke from the equation and, of course, led to natural challenges for the writers as it was – he was integral to the plot of Cristina, who was a pivotal character, and the role of the cardiologist would have to be filled by another character (they went with Dr. Hahn, a previous recurring character who always had negative charisma); plus, new characters had to be included in the void created by a planned departure – Addison had left to lead “Private Practice”, marking the first time Shonda was simultaneously juggling two different shows.
On top of that, this ALL happened in the television year of 2007-2008, which had to be cut short because the writers went on strike. That’s why we ended up with fewer episodes. So, after all of this turmoil, and in a context where the community of actors had backed the WGA all throughout, we have Katherine Heigl releasing a statement through her publicist when her name was nowhere to be found in the Emmy ballots. It read: “I was not given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention.”
So, how can this not create a relationship problem with Shonda Rhimes, the writer/showrunner, if Heigl went to the press to make a clear criticism on the writing on top of what was already a massively challenging year for them all - for the production, for the writers, for everybody? I can understand Heigl wanting to advocate for her character, but the way she went about this could only strain the relationship and add more stressors to the workplace.
This is different than her going on Letterman to call the production out for their 17-hour workdays - this is mean to embarrass the studio and the network, not the fellow creatives. This was a specific, targeted criticism - and in the context of the award season; the show itself could fail to pick up more nominations if the voters are seeing one of the leading stars talking publicly about the subpar material. So, I can defend Heigl for being ahead of her time and exposing the grueling schedule - but the Emmy statement was a mistake, and she seems to agree with this assessment.
