> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thefilmmaven.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, and Why the 2000s Sucked for Women - URL: https://thefilmmaven.com/katherine-heigl-seth-rogen-and-why-the-2000s-sucked-for-women/ - Published: 2026-09-15T16:00:50.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-15T23:30:26.000Z - Description: Are we ready to admit she was right about "Knocked Up?" - Author: Kristen Lopez - Tags: Women They Warned You About [***Women They Warned You About***](https://thefilmmaven.com/tag/women-they-warned-you-about/) *is an ongoing series focused on Hollywood misogyny and how the term "difficult" has been used on women in the entertainment industry. This piece is *usually* *exclusive to my Gold tier** [***Gold Star Crew***](https://thefilmmaven.com/film-maven-gold-star-crew/) **but with a new season starting* this post is *free to enjoy*.* ***šŸŒŸSupporters like:*** Jeremy Scholl, Naomi Nelson, Sarah E Wethern, Matt McDaniel, Sofiya Cheyenne, Wiley Sutton, Rachel Dinga, KYoder, Franker Cline, and Mark MurphyšŸ’« *Congrats to *Gold Star Crew member Talleri Mcrae* who won my Kristen's Favorite Things box during our first paid subscription drive! As well as *Julie Wyman, who won the flex prize*!* **Want access to the entire Film Maven archive? Become a Gold Star Crew member*. Paid subscribers are the backbone of The Film Maven who support independent journalism, as well as female- and disabled-created content. Paid Film Mavens get access to *shout-outs, exclusive articles and series, Zoom mixers, and The Film Maven Discord server*.* [*Consider becoming a paid subscriber*](https://thefilmmaven.com/gold-film-maven-deal) *and joining the community that invests in independent journalism free of AI and influencer opinions!* --- I've always been intrigued about how we weaponize the word "difficult," especially in Hollywood. The adage is well known: a difficult woman is a bitch or a pariah while a difficult man is a boss or a genius. In 2018, in the wake of several women coming forward to talk about how their careers had been altered by a Hollywood smear campaign (much of it fueled by disgraced Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein), [I wrote a piece for Roger Ebert](https://www.rogerebert.com/features/the-history-of-hollywoods-difficult-women?ref=thefilmmaven.com) about this topic. As I said in that piece, "A [casual Google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=difficult+actresses&rlz=1CAACAO%5FenUS728US728&oq=difficult+actresses&aqs=chrome.0.35i39j0l5.3103j1j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=thefilmmaven.com) of the term 'difficult actress' leads to a litany of lists with arbitrary reasons masquerading as logical explanations. '\[X\] uses foul language. \[X\] asked for an exorbitant amount of money.' Sometimes a clear-cut example isnā€™t even required to give audiences specific unkind thoughts about a star, as evidenced by a [2012 article by author Alexis Rhiannon](http://www.alloy.com/entertainment/anne-hathaway-hosting-saturday-night-live-snl-les-miserables-the-devil-wears-prada-princess-diaries-528/?ref=thefilmmaven.com) that chastised actress [Anne Hathaway](https://www.rogerebert.com/cast-and-crew/anne-hathaway?ref=thefilmmaven.com) for giving off vibes strong enough to 'rub \[Rhiannon\] the wrong way.'ā€ In the wake of the #MeToo movement, and [it's presumed failure](https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/06/03/was-the-metoo-backlash-inevitable/?ref=thefilmmaven.com), this hasn't gone away. If anything, the whispers have gotten quieter, couched in therapyspeak, or outright just continued unabated. How the term difficult, and the women who have come to immortalize it, represent specific elements of our Hollywood landscape. This column, "Women They Warned You About," focuses on these stories, treading through the morass of Hollywood pop culture to illustrate how women are often forced to represent so many things. Is the word "difficult" always a career killer? How can a person come back from it? All will be uncovered. There was one woman I knew I wanted to start this column with. One woman who, weirdly enough, even the most non-inside Hollywood person tended to think of when contemplating "difficult women": Katherine Heigl. The *Grey's Anatomy* actress is a staple for us millennial kids, from *My Father the Hero* (we'll get into that) to *Wish Upon a Star*, from *Bride of Chucky* to *Roswell*. But her getting the difficult label shows a lot about 2000s-era cringe, misogyny, and the ways women are often forced to apologize for setting their own boundaries. Heigl was a working actor starting at the age of eleven. Her willowy appearance and beauty immediately put her on the path with what we now see all too clearly these days: creepy ass Hollywood sexism. In 1994, she was cast in the Disney family comedy *My Father the Hero*, the story of a teen girl who goes on vacation with her estranged father (Gerard Depardieu). In the hopes of attracting an older boy, Heigl's character Nicole claims that her father is actually her older boyfriend. *My Father the Hero* definitely falls into "problematic Disney fave" to the nth degree and it's remarkable that Heigl is able to hold her own and play the part in spite of all the disturbing stuff that actually happens in it. And, make no mistake, there was a lot of problematic stuff that was on full display in 1994\. The film's biggest "taboo" moment was less the plot and more Heigl, just 14, wearing a thong bathing suit in a poolside scene. I've read different articles listing who initially suggested the thong--some have said Heigl, at 14, suggested it--but it's certainly the least disturbing thing in the movie. (If anything, the DVD commentary with director Steve Miner going on an extended soliloquy about the then-14-year-old Heigl's beauty in that scene is more....eesh.) But to watch Heigl promote it at the time it was business as usual. A 1994 clip from the (then) [Regis and Kathie Lee](https://thefilmmaven.com/send-help-review/) morning show sees Heigl being compared to heroin chic supermodel Kate Moss--Gifford compares Heigl to her, "but healthy"--while having to answer questions about kissing the 23-year-old actor playing her boyfriend. Heigl is open in the interview about how awkward it was to kiss a man in his twenties when she's just fourteen, but the audience appears to laugh more at her making light of having to kiss the guy in front of his girlfriend and her mother than the fact he's a grown man kissing a child. Before Heigl was labeled difficult it was actually [her mother/manager Nancy](https://www.today.com/parents/moms/katherine-heigl-says-mom-nancy-protected-career-today-show-rcna58949?ref=thefilmmaven.com) who took the heat during these early times, doing what so many people ask for parents of child actors to do: protect them. It's telling that, before her 17th birthday, Heigl worked opposite [Depardieu](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5v7ny40q2o?ref=thefilmmaven.com) and [Steven Seagal](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42627922?ref=thefilmmaven.com), in 1995's *Under Siege 2: Dark Territory*, both with a litany of assault allegations to their name. In [an undated interview with Howard Stern](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=710339145007219) (the first of many in this piece), Heigl talks about how her mother stood up to Seagal on the set of the movie when he wanted to put the then 15-year-old--she turned sixteen on set--in provocative clothing. As Heigl recounts it her mother told him, "No one fucks with my daughter." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-26-at-4.08.59---PM.png) People forget there was a two year gap between Heigl's Emmy-winning role on Grey's Anatomy and her role in Judd Apatow's 2007 romantic comedy *Knocked Up*, and that if not for her role on the Shonda Rhimes medical drama it's doubtful she'd have ever been cast in the Seth Rogen-starrer (remember this for later). The film follows a couple (Heigl and Seth Rogen) who embark on a relationship after a drunken one night stand results in a pregnancy. It was a [January 2008 interview with *Vanity Fair*](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/heigl200801?ref=thefilmmaven.com) (released seven months after *Knocked Up* was released) that is often cited as "proof" of Heigl's career implosion. In the interview, she is honest about how she felt about the feature which, again, had already been out for seven months, saying: "It was a little sexist. It paints women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a b\*\*\*h; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? Ninety-eight percent of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie." And...she's not wrong. Has anyone rewatched *Knocked Up*? I have. Several times. At times the movie is a heartfelt story of two selfish people who, under any other situation, wouldn't have ever dated putting aside their own BS to fall in love and go through a pregnancy. But Judd Apatow ain't exactly feminist about its presentation. [Apatow has even admitted he isn't](https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/08/166959/judd-apatow-vulture-interview-feminist?ref=thefilmmaven.com) a feminist nor does he really see the big hullabaloo of greenlighting movies that skews heavily towards female audiences. His movies have continuously taken criticism for presenting his female characters in a negative light (don't get me started on *Trainwreck*) so for his actress to admit that the character is presented as a nag in comparison to Rogen's loveable stoner with no job living off a lawsuit settlement? It's not like that's NOT what the movie is showing. But, remember, she's a woman criticizing something men made. Around the same time she did a David Letterman appearance where [she criticized *Grey's Anatomy's* 17-hour workdays](https://www.today.com/popculture/heigl-s-first-grey-s-day-was-cruel-mean-wbna32056737?ref=thefilmmaven.com), which she called "cruel and mean." Heigl, by this point, was on her way to movie stardom, eventually asking that her contract with *Grey's Anatomy* end in 2010 because of how much money she was making in film. When her 2009 rom-com *The Ugly Truth* debuted the claims of Heigl's presumed difficulty was well-known. Apatow and Rogen started talking about Heigl's issues with them from two year's prior in a way that has the whiff of being "We're returning the favor." That year, [in an interview with the New York Post](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/19/opinions/katherine-heigl-greys-anatomy-emmys-reunion-stewart?ref=thefilmmaven.com), Apatow said, "You would think at some point Iā€™d get a call saying she was sorry, that she was tired, and then the call never comes." Rogen said he was surprised by Heigl's criticisms, especially in the wake of the film's financial success. Because a movie that makes a ton of money can't be criticized apparently? A 2009 episode of *The Young Turks* sees the male anchor declare, "*Knocked Up* made \[Heigl's\] whole career. You can't just go and bash \[it\]....Rogen and Apatow are 100% right to be bitter." This then leads said anchor to admit he enjoyed *The Ugly Truth* and asks his female co-anchor if that makes him gay. 2009, folks. It's funny that the belief was that *Knocked Up* "made" Heigl's career when, if anything, it was *Grey's Anatomy* where [she was making nearly $200,000](https://marketrealist.com/what-is-katherine-heigls-net-worth/?ref=thefilmmaven.com) an episode before she walked away in 2010\. One would be more inclined to argue *Knocked Up* made Rogen's career, being his first major leading role after his supporting performance in *The 40-Year-Old Virgin*. Heigl was the bigger star at the time. [The Film MavenInsider access. Unignored perspective. Film criticism that actually matters.![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)The Film MavenKristen Lopez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/thumbnail/KristenLopez_Main-1-f926c9578739e44924fc78524ae9afc2e5a3495b302a182b006c4b087b1512a5.png)](https://thefilmmaven.com/#/portal/gift) Rogen and Apatow wouldn't stop talking about Heigl. Mind you, journalists kept asking them (and asking Heigl as well), but they were the more inclined to say there was an issue vs. Heigl who tried to brush everything off. At a certain point Heigl admitted she did eventually apologize to Rogen; it's unclear whether she reached out to Apatow and assumed they were cool. But, nine years ago, Rogen went on Howard Stern, again, to say that he'd run into Heigl in a restaurant and was shocked that she acted like nothing happened. He never acknowledged an apology from her and came off as more offended that she bothered to talk to him at all. He also reiterated his "I'm angry but not" mentality towards her comments from 2009 saying, "As someone who's an egomaniac I just get hurt by that." Heigl spent a lot of her late thirties presumably apologizing to two guys who had no problem reopening the can of worms to poke what was inside. Because of that, she ended up having to apologize practically every time she opened her mouth. In 2017 she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel wherein he showed her photos of her with Steven Seagal (him again) during the press tour for *Under Siege 2*. Heigl gamely tells a cringe-inducing story of how Seagal had no trouble telling her he was dating girls her age (sixteen!) and that "they don't mind" dating him. Later in the interview, Kimmel shows Heigl a photo of Seagal with his hand on her breast. As the audience and Kimmel laugh Heigl puts on a smile and laughs at well. She jokes about how disturbing it is but then quickly tells Seagal, who she believes might be watching (from Russia, presumably) how much she liked working with him. One year later allegations would drop [accusing him of sexually assaulting](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/15/steven-seagal-denies-new-sexual-assault-allegation?ref=thefilmmaven.com) actress Rae Dawn Chong. It's sad to watch, in 2017, a woman forced to plaster on a smile and laugh at what seems such an obvious violation. In the year since Heigl seems content to step back. In [a 2023 interview](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/katherine-heigl-betrayed-confused-backlash-120000116.html?ref=thefilmmaven.com) Heigl reflected on her apology tour saying, "I kept apologizing, which I now realize just kept giving the whole thing a heartbeat. I thought self-flagellation in front of everybody would make them happy, but actually it made me weaker in peopleā€™s eyes and made me feel weak. I now think that one apology was enough." She got [even blunter in a *Washington Post* interview](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/01/28/katherine-heigl-firefly-lane-profile/?arc404=true&ref=thefilmmaven.com): "I may have said a couple of things you didnā€™t like, but then that escalated to ā€˜sheā€™s ungrateful,ā€™ then that escalated to ā€˜sheā€™s difficult,ā€™ and that escalated to ā€˜sheā€™s unprofessional....What is your definition of difficult? Somebody with an opinion that you donā€™t like? Now, Iā€™m 42, and that sā€” pisses me off.ā€ You still see her face on TV, hawking Posie pads and organic dog food, but it's far from the successful career that could have been. Heigl could very well have been a pain to work with, but it's hard to look at the written words used to damn her and not see some truth in it. It's also impossible not to see the double standard of her male co-star and director continuing to bring it up with absolutely no fear of how they'll be perceived or whether they'll face backlash. Heigl worked with some real sons of bitches and we should all give her a hug or something. **If you liked this review, paid Film Mavens get the stuff I can't publish anywhere else:** - **Access to all my paid content and exclusive series** like: [How Does 9/11 Cinema Hold Up 25 Years Later? A Sobering ReturnIt took Hollywood five years to tell the story of 9/11\. It took 25 for me to revisit them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/icon/KristenLopez_Secondary-b4c1e908-b5a2-4421-a125-755417606123.png)The Film MavenKristen Lopez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/thumbnail/d0bv44xlrckdptz3ifjl-25813daf-50d8-408f-8ba9-03b53e2aba2b.jpg)](https://thefilmmaven.com/movies-about-9-11/) [Thomasin McKenzie Reveals the Dark Backstory She Created for The Uprising \[Video\]McKenzie also discusses becoming Audrey Hepburn and recreating her iconic voice![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/icon/KristenLopez_Secondary-8f9cd7f5-42db-4c98-9061-a9244b55dc0e.png)The Film MavenKristen Lopez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/24/37/24372e80-8819-45cd-8a9d-4dbc679f7337/content/images/thumbnail/1-d5873cea-9821-46a0-a23a-3263e667fab3.png)](https://thefilmmaven.com/thomason-mckenzie-audrey-hepburn-the-uprising/) - **Shout outs on my newsletter** when you join and whenever you have something you're launching. - **Included on my Gold Star Crew list** - **Bi-Monthly Zoom Mixers** where we can talk entertainment, get advice on journalism, and generally discuss the world. - **Access to our Discord server** where we can chat about movies and entertainment. It's also where I host my yearly Golden Globes and Oscar watches. - Participation in my new **Film Maven Secret Santa Gift Exchange** (launching November 2026), book clubs, and film discussion groups (launching later this year) ---