Drama alert! Not everyone gets along at work, but when it comes to TV, some of the drama behind the scenes turns into next-level clashes. Us Weekly has gathered just a few of the scandalous troubles that happened off-camera that ultimately changed things on camera.
When Katherine Heigl exited Grey’s Anatomy in 2010, she said it was to focus on her family. “Everyone had been working really hard to find an amicable and gracious way of letting go and moving on. It’s sad, but it’s what I wanted,” she told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “My life changed so dramatically in the last six years. I started a family, and it changed everything for me. It changed my desire to work full-time.”
Many fans of the drama felt there was more to the story, as there had been rumors she was “difficult” to work with. In 2008, she chose not to enter the Emmy race saying, “I did not feel I was given the material this season to warrant a nomination,” a quote she later apologized to Shonda Rhimes for. “Everybody has bad days,” she told EW in 2010 of the statement. “I was a little defensive about my season because I thought I hadn’t had a great one. And a lot of that had to do with me and my performances.”
Although Heigl said the creator accepted her apology, the writer launched Scandal in 2014 and stated, “There are no Heigls in this situation. … I don’t put up with bulls–t or nasty people. I don’t have time for it.”
Grey’s Anatomy is only one of many shows that includes unseen drama. Sophia Bush exited Chicago P.D. in 2017 after four seasons, citing how unhappy she was. The One Tree Hill alum has detailed her experience in many interviews since, explaining that she dreaded going to work every day.
“You start to lose your way when someone assaults you in a room full of people and everyone literally looks away, looks at the floor, looks at the ceiling, and you’re the one woman in the room and every man who’s twice your size doesn’t do something,” she shared on the “Armchair Expert” podcast in 2018.
Scroll through the gallery below for more behind-the-scenes drama.