Ellen Pompeo praises Katherine Heigl for calling out ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ working conditions

Years after Katherine Heigl called working conditions on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy” “cruel and mean,” series star Ellen Pompeo stepped forward to agree with Heigl’s assessment of the long-running series.

During an episode of her podcast, “Tell Me,” Pompeo said Heigl was “absolutely correct” when she shed light on the long hours of production during a 2009 interview with David Letterman.

“I remember Heigl said something on a talk show about the insane hours we were working and she was 100 percent right,” Pompeo said this week while speaking with former “Grey’s Anatomy” star Kate Walsh. “And had she said that today, she’d be a complete hero. But she’s ahead of her time, made a statement about our crazy hours and of course, [it was like] let’s slam a woman and call her ungrateful.”

Back in 2009, Heigl said to Letterman, “Our first day back was Wednesday and it was — I’m going to keep saying this because I hope it embarrasses them — a 17-hour day, which I think is cruel and mean.”

The comments were roundly criticized at the time, including by then-president of ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson. “I think it’s unfortunate,” McPherson said of Heigl’s remarks. “People are going to behave in the way they choose to behave. There are so many people who work so hard on ‘Grey’s,’ and all of our shows, without any notoriety and those are the ones I’d be concerned about, people who feel like they’re being criticized or looked down upon.”

Heigl left the series a few months after her interview with Letterman. In the years since, she’s talked about the comments and the controversy that followed in the aftermath. “Some of you may remember over ten years ago I was very vocal about the absurdity of the working hours crews and actors were being forced into by production,” Heigl wrote on Instagram in September of last year. “Even Diane Sawyer interviewed me and not so kindly informed me ‘no one feels sorry for you.’ I very publicly and for many many years after got my ass kicked for speaking up.”

She added, “I let that public spanking shut me up and shut me down. I took a very big step back from the hustle of my career and retreated into the woods of Utah. I spent a fair amount of time struggling with self-confidence and self-worth… I let myself be convinced that I was wrong. Very very wrong. That speaking out made me seem ungrateful or precious or as if I were ‘biting the hand that fed me.'”

But with a decade of distance, Heigl said she was more confident than ever in her initial remarks. “So I speak up today and say with zero hesitation or regret…14, 16, 17, 18-hour workdays are NOT safe,” she added. “They are NOT healthy. They can not and should NO longer be tolerated.”

Speaking this week, Pompeo said Heigl showed tremendous strength to speak up at the time. “The truth is, she’s 100 percent honest and it’s absolutely correct what she said. She was f–king ballsy for saying it — she was telling the truth. She wasn’t lying!”

Added Walsh, who is set to appear again on “Grey’s Anatomy” this season following a guest turn earlier in Season 18, “There’s nothing natural about [the filming process]. There’s nothing human about it. It’s made for a machine; it’s as if we’re a camera or a mic that just goes and goes and goes. And it’s not conducive to any kind of healthy habits.”

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