Last week Ginny and I were catching up on our John Oliver videos when Katherine Heigl's name came up. As a punchline. Of course as a punchline. It's the only reason anyone talks about her.
Now I'm not bothered by Oliver's writing staff for going there, but I couldn't help but wonder why Heigl is still such a viable comedic target. Inadvertently, she seems to be continuing a wave surf of being 'cool to hate on'. And you know what? I think it's unfair.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan. I don't understand why she ever broke the A-list market. I've always assumed it was based on her looks. Her only two pre-Knocked Up performances that I've seen are Wish Upon a Star and Bride of Chucky and she just seemed...lost. Both times. And for most of her work since then (with which I'm familiar) she really seems to be phoning it in. So either her talent as an actress is noticeably limited or her personal drive is.
But, whatever. That's not really enough to hate a celebrity with the fervor that Mama June consciously stirred up. So why exactly do people hate her so much? Well let's go through the common issues that always seem to come up.
1. She has a reputation for being difficult to work with.
And? Okay first off, anyone who has been through high school knows how unyielding a 'reputation' is no matter where it falls on the unearned/inaccurate spectrum. And Hollywood has a 'reputation' of being professional high school, so I don't trust this argument. I also notice how general it is. What makes her difficult? Is she late a lot? So was Marilyn, and generations later look how revered she is. Does Heigl make demands? Maybe. Probably. I don't want to veer off subject too much, but the men in Hollywood never have that cloud looming over them.
Maybe she is a pain in real life. We don't know. We're the peasants in the movie theater, we're not on set. This shouldn't affect us. We only accept this vague evidence because we want to. It's like we want her to be the bad guy.
2. Her movies suck.
Some of them do, yes. I saw The Ugly Truth and I hated every damn thing about it. I found the movie insultingly sexist and tediously unfunny. Is that Heigl's fault? Was she on set demanding her character's likability be edited out? Did Gerard Butler get the same flack for his flawless impression of a pig?
When it comes to bad movies you can only blame an actor for not trying. Men in Black II was a bad movie, but Will Smith was really trying to rise above the material, and before we lost him to that thing that we all know we lost him to he was a truly admirable Hollywood star. Heigl has never proven herself to be admirable. But should we hate her because her horrible movie earned back its budget five times, or should we hate ourselves?
3. She abandoned Grey's Anatomy to pursue a film career.
So what if she did? I loved John Oliver on Community but I'm happy he's got a successful HBO show now. Is this one even worth addressing?
4. She bit the hand that fed her by calling Knocked Up sexist.
This is the big one that is probably going to follow her for the rest of her career. It gets treated like Judd Apatow really did Katherine Heigl a HUGE favor by casting her in his masterpiece and then she had the sheer audacity to throw up all over it on her way to the bank. We found a witch (or something similar)! May we burn her?
Look, here's the quote as best as I can track it down from slate.com. She said Knocked Up was "a little sexist. It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. … I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy?"
It sure sounds like she's making a valid point. Maybe her use of the word 'sexist' isn't the best way to go about it but it's not like she's completely out of line. I suspect Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen may have assumed the word was directed at them personally instead of at the larger issue plaguing too many Hollywood scripts.
Here's what I think happened. Katherine Heigl is a passable actress. Her range seems to be limited at best but whatever, Hollywood is the last place where people get what they deserve. So she happened to catch a good wave and now she and her mother think she's a professional surfer. And for a while Hollywood fed into it, because studio executives are predominantly trend followers anyway. That's not a reason to hate her.
Yes, she's annoying beyond the scope of her talent, but her talent is still there. It's not the A-list talent she's managed to get paid for, but that's a problem with the system. There are INCREDIBLY talented street performers who never get off the street, any of whom could run circles around a decent percentage of Hollywood. But for whatever reason, Heigl is talented enough and appealing enough to land that major gig. And that seems to be the only real reason she's hated in the industry.
So I think we need to agree on one of two things. Either we demand that all performers who make it big on a 'just enough' level of talent get the same amount of hate (in which case I'm calling for Jimmy Fallon's resignation from comedy; not The Tonight Show mind you, but comedy in general) or we give Katherine Heigl a long overdue break and accept that One For the Money was actually a pretty good movie.
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