Why Ellen Pompeo Thinks Katherine Heigl Was Ahead Of Her Time When She Spoke Out About Her Grey's Anatomy Exit

During Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl's conversation for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series, the "Grey's Anatomy" stars discussed the wave of controversy that followed Heigl leaving the show and speaking negatively about her experience. Pompeo pointed out that at the time, Heigl was just early to the trend. "They came out with this thing . . . where everybody has their own megaphone and they get a blue check," she joked. "It's called Twitter." Pompeo added, "You were just a little ahead of your time, lady," and Heigl chimed in sarcastically, "Damn it, I should have waited for Twitter. I'd be huge!"

Pompeo noted that these days, criticism is more widely embraced because of social media. "Somehow now, collectively, the whole world gets to criticize everything and tell everybody to f*** off, and it's OK," the actor observed. "But when you did it . . ." she trailed off. Heigl replied resignedly, "They didn't like me. Oh, well. What are you going to do?"

Continuing to speak in her former costar's defense, Pompeo made the argument that confident women aren't so well-liked. She explained that people don't want women to have a strong voice. "They don't want women to have control because they know that we can do it better than they can," Pompeo said.