Ellen Pompeo & Katherine Heigl Praise ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Creator Shonda Rhimes For ‘Changing The Entire Dialogue’ For Women In Television’

etcanada.com:

Former “Grey’s Anatomy” co-stars Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl are together again — not in Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, mind you, but in a new joint interview for Variety.

While discussing their experiences on “Grey’s”, the actresses recall a storyline in which Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang shifted from doctor to patient when she was treated for an ectopic pregnancy. “Republicans in Congress should read up on ectopic pregnancies, and they should understand how life-threatening a condition that is and how to save a woman’s life when that happens,” Pompeo said of the storyline, also referencing Republicans’ draconian anti-abortion legislation that would ban treatment of ectopic pregnancies and other issues arising during pregnancy. READ MORE: Ellen Pompeo And Katherine Heigl Set To Reunite 13 Years After ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ “Sorry, I digress,” Pompeo said, adding, “And kudos to Shonda Rhimes for talking about that stuff.” “No, kudos to Shonda for changing the entire dialogue of network television at a time that really didn’t have women in those kinds of roles in the story, didn’t have as much diversity,” said Heigl of how series creator Rhimes revolutionized television with “Grey’s Anatomy”. “I was young.

I wasn’t paying that much attention. It felt like a job, a great job. I didn’t realize it was as impactful as it was,” Heigl admitted. “Well, it’s a gift to have the privilege to grow older and wiser — we don’t all have it,” she added. “We laughed so much and so hard, and the crew was so mad at us because we couldn’t pull our s**t together to get through a take.”