He forgives her for knocking their movie. Seth Rogen further clarified his decade-old feud with Knocked Up costar Katherine Heigl after she slammed the 2007 comedy.
Back in an infamous 2008 Vanity Fair interview, Heigl said she didn’t like how she was portrayed because the pregnancy comedy “paints the women as shrews,” while the men look “lovable.” She added, “It was hard for me to love the movie.” The comments upset Rogen and director/writer Judd Apatow, who both hit back at Heigl in interviews shortly after.
Rogen, 34, appeared on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show on Monday, August 8, and said that years ago he was surprised by her reaction because they got along so well on set. “As we were making the movie, honestly, I was like, ‘I would make a dozen movies with her. I would be whatever the s—ty version of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan is,’” he said. “I thought we had a great dynamic. People seemed to like it. We were funny together. I was having a really good time, and then when I heard afterward that she didn’t like it, that she seemed to not like the process, and she didn’t like the end product either. 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 this scene. I don’t like how I’m coming across here.’”
The comedy superstar said he hopes that her criticism of the film didn’t prevent other directors and actors from working with her. “I respect the fact that perhaps she realizes that it hurt her career, and I don’t want that to have happened to her at all,” he said. “I’ve said a thousand stupid things and I really like her. A thing like that, especially if she’s being honest … the only people who in this situation that it should take away from in this situation is me and Judd.”
When the Grey’s Anatomy alum, 37, stopped by Stern’s show back in April, she said that years later she knows it was “an immature, dumb-ass moment” to make those comments. “[The journalist] said, ‘You know a lot of women felt it was a little sexist.’ And I felt obligated to answer,” she said.
Heigl also recalled that she ran into Rogen at a restaurant shortly after the squabble, and it seemed he was still upset — but Rogen countered to Stern that he didn’t find the encounter awkward. “Maybe I just have a worse poker face than I thought. In my head, it was not an unpleasant interaction,” he said. “I thought she hated us. We made a movie. I was very proud of it. It was critically very well received. It financially was probably still my most successful movie, I think, and then we just heard that she didn’t like it. And it seemed like she didn’t have a good experience making it and didn’t think the product was reflective of how she thought she should be portrayed. … I would imagine that my reaction was more of surprise … and I was probably confused about what the f–k was happening.”
