"She was 100 percent right"
Ellen Pompeo is praising former co-star Katherine Heigl over previous comments about Grey's Anatomy.
On her Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo podcast, Ellen—who has starred as Meredith Grey in the drama for 18 seasons—reflected on her earlier days on the show, including working with Heigl in 2009.
That year, Heigl was criticised for noting her "seventeen-hour" long workdays on set.
Now, Pompeo is giving her two cents.
"I'm very lucky now with my schedule on Grey's," she said during the April 20th episode.
"I get to cut back and overall, I'm happy for the production as a whole, because we have cut back tremendously. Back in the day, we used to do crazy, crazy hours."
Reflecting, Pompeo continued: "I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working, but she was 100 percent right—and had she said that today she'd be a complete hero, but she was ahead of her time.
"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. And she was f--king ballsy for saying it. And she was telling the truth. She wasn't lying.
"Also, when you're younger, you're so excited to be there and you're so happy to be invited to the party that you're willing to do whatever it is they're asking you to do."
Heigl, who played Izzie Stevens on the hit medical drama, first spoke about the working conditions on The Late Show with David Letterman.
"Our first day back was Wednesday and I'm going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them, it was a seventeen-hour workday," she said at the time.
In an Instagram post from last year, Heigl stood by her comments.
"Some of you may remember over ten years ago I was very vocal about the absurdity of the working hours crews and actors were being forced into by production," she wrote.
"Even Diane Sawyer interviewed me and not so kindly informed me 'no one feels sorry for you.' I very publicly and for many many years after got my ass kicked for speaking up.
"I let myself be convinced that I was wrong. Very very wrong. That speaking out made me seem ungrateful or precious or as if I were 'biting the hand that fed me.'
"So I speak up today and say with zero hesitation or regret…14, 16, 17, 18 hour work days are NOT safe. They are NOT healthy. They can not and should NO longer be tolerated."
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