Katherine Heigl is known for speaking her truth, but after letting her walls down during a Variety Actors on Actors interview with Ellen Pompeo, she allegedly went into full freakout mode. "Katherine Heigl really went there and then was in a huge panic afterwards that she'd said too much," Variety Editor-at-Large Kate Aurthur claimed during the Thursday, December 11, episode of the "Viall Files" podcast, recounting the 2023 interview between the Grey's Anatomy costars. According to Aurthur, her team had to "talk her down" and ease Heigl's concerns about how open she'd been while discussing her exit from Grey's and past controversial takes on the entertainment industry. "Her manager freaked out. She was maybe not going to release the footage," Aurthur alleged of Heigl's reaction at the time. "I was out there. She was there crying." Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl Reflect on 'Grey's Anatomy' Drama The journalist recalled having a heart-to-heart with Heigl, 47, and telling her that "the world has changed" and "caught up" with the actress' transparency. Aurthur said she told Heigl, "You were right most of the time. People now understand that." She claimed, "I was like, 'It's going to be great,' and then it was great. Her husband was the one who had come with her. It was great. Then her manager was like, 'You are right,' when it came out." Us Weekly has reached out to Heigl's rep for comment. Katherine Heigl, T.R. Knight. Scott Garfield/ABC/Everett Collection Heigl and Pompeo, 56, both made a splash in Hollywood when they took on the roles of doctors Izzie Stevens and Meredith Grey, respectively, on Grey's Anatomy in 2005. Heigl exited the series in its sixth season in 2010 after being painted, as she called it, as "ungrateful" and "difficult" on set. Her departure came after Heigl publicly criticized the writing on the ABC series and feuded with creator Shonda Rhimes. Heigl also turned heads in 2008 for allegedly withdrawing her name from consideration for the Emmys, after winning Best Supporting Actress in a Drama the year prior. During her and Pompeo's Actors on Actors discussion, which was released in June 2023, Heigl recalled the highs and lows that came with Grey's fame and her tainted farewell. Katherine Heigl Denies Turning Down 'Grey's Anatomy' Emmy Nomination "I was so naive. I got on my soapbox and I had some things to say, and I felt really passionate about this stuff," Heigl recalled of her rocky goodbye. "I felt really strongly. I felt so strongly that I also got a megaphone out on my soapbox." She noted, "I've spent most of my life - I think most women do - being in that people-pleasing mode. It's really disconcerting when you feel like you have really displeased everybody. It was not my intention to do so, but I had some things to say, and I didn't think I was going to get such a strong reaction." While Heigl admitted that the backlash she received for being outspoken made her question whether she was a "bad" person, Pompeo supported her. "You were just a little early, because they came out with this thing where everybody has their own megaphone and they get a blue check. It's called Twitter. You were just a little ahead of your time, lady," Pompeo joked. Katherine Heigl and Jeffrey Dean Morgan Look Back on 'Ghost Denny' Looking back, Heigl said in 2023 that she was "vibrating at way too high of a level of anxiety," calling that time period "a bit of a blur." "It took me years to learn how to deal with that, to master it. I can't even say that I've mastered it, but to even know to work on it, that anxiety and fear - and stress is stress," Heigl told Pompeo. "And if you leave stress too long, unmanaged and unaddressed, it can be debilitating." Pompeo, who is still an executive producer on the show after stepping back as a series regular for season 19, said she's tried to lessen the stress she sees on sets. "I've only been on one set my whole entire career, so I guess people could critique this comment, but I hear a lot of stories; I don't hear about a lot of support," Pompeo said of stress plaguing actors. "That's one of the things I try to do now as a producer, specifically on Grey's, is try to offer support - try to have a place for people to talk through things."