Katherine Heigl Reacts to Alex and Izzie's Surprise Grey's Anatomy Reunion: 'Isn't That an A--hole Move?'
Katherine Heigl is Team Jo.
The former Grey’s Anatomy actress is weighing in for the first time on the ABC drama’s decision last year to reunite Alex and Izzie as a means to explain the abrupt departure of Justin Chambers.
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Asked about the twist by Entertainment Tonight, Heigl mused, “Wasn’t [Alex] with someone?” — referring to his then-bride, Jo. Heigl, who maintained that she did not see the episode in question, then added, “Listen, isn’t that an a**hole move?”
Grey’s showrunner Krista Vernoff previously acknowledged that she was backed into something of a corner when it came to writing out Alex, since Chambers was unavailable to shoot a proper exit for his character.
“At the end of the day, there were three choices,” the EP explained to TVLine. “Kill Alex off camera; have Alex be alive and in Seattle — and still married to Jo — and we just never see him; or [reunite him] with Izzie.”
As we learned in the March 5 episode, Vernoff went with Option 3, which she saw as the only viable one. Killing Alex would’ve been “cruel to everyone — particularly Meredith and Jo,” she says of the character’s BFF and wife, respectively. “There was no way to not put those characters through gut-wrenching, ongoing grief if we had killed Alex off camera.”
Heigl — who will next be seen in Netflix’s 10-episode drama Firefly Lane — told ET there was little chance she would ever return to Grey’s. “I would never say never,” she hedged, before adding, “but it’s not likely.”
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