Katherine Heigl Seeks A
Wider Big Screen
In her 18-year career
Katherine Heigl has done a great many things.
She played farce with Gerard Depardieu in "My
Father the Hero" (1994), explored extraterrestrial soap
opera in "Roswell" (1999-2002)
and mastered medical matters in "Grey's
Anatomy." That show's success led to her being cast in
big-screen romantic comedies such as "Knocked
Up" (2007), "27 Dresses"
(2008) and "The Ugly Truth"
(2009).
Never, however, had she been called upon to tackle the kind
of action scenes demanded by her new film, the comedy "Killers."
"I look like a moron as an action person," Heigl said with a
laugh during an interview at a Los Angeles hotel. "I was
running and thinking, 'You don't do these kind of things!
You save lives on a TV show. You give birth in a movie. You
don't jump!'"
So she's not going to be the next Sigourney Weaver or Linda
Hamilton?
"Oh, believe me, I'm not an action star, which fits
perfectly into this role," Heigl said, looking sexy in a
silky, short, black-and-white dress that reveals about a
mile of leg. "You can feel my pain in this movie when I'm
shooting guns. But I have no choice. I'm just a girl who
marries a guy who has this unfortunate past."
"Killers"
casts the actress as a single woman who, while vacationing
with her parents in the South of France, meets a quiet,
handsome and romantic American (Ashton Kutcher). The two
fall in love and soon marry, embarking on a life of ease.
Her new husband, after all, is already retired from his job.
"The only problem is, he never really told me exactly what
he did for a living," Heigl said.
It turns out that he's a retired superspy, a fact which
comes up when they find themselves targeted by some baddies
from his past.
"Suddenly we go from just a quiet suburban couple to two
people on the lam with killers after them," she said. "I
guess the message is that you can learn a lot about your
mate when you're trying to survive with him."
The film is much different from Heigl's three recent
romantic comedies, not to mention from the hospital drama "Grey's
Anatomy," which she recently left. That's no accident,
nor is it a coincidence that her next film, a drama called "Life
as We Know It," is different from all of the above.
"I definitely wanted to go out and explore other
characters," Heigl said. "It's nice to remove yourself and
play a different movie character each time. You play
yourself a bit on a series that's long-running. It's still
me that shows up in a film role, but it's also always
different.
"I know some of my film roles will be distant cousins of
Izzie on 'Grey's Anatomy,'" she added. "I can always color
my hair to change it up for people. That's how I'll fool
everyone!"
At 31, Heigl says, she's eager to move beyond the light
material that has so far been her bread and butter on the
big screen.
"As much as I love the younger audience and a movie like '27
Dresses,'" she said, "I want to tell real stories to people
my age. Life is full of issues and problems. Those are the
movies I love the most, the ones that give you a view of the
world and teach you how other people struggle through life.
"I like when a movie doesn't feel too cute, because life
isn't always so cute."
This deeper perspective may be the result of parenthood:
Last year Heigl and her husband, musician Josh Kelley,
adopted a little girl from Korea. They named the girl, now
18 months old, Nancy Leigh Kelley. These days Heigl is
frequently snapped by the paparazzi wheeling Naleigh, as she
has been nicknamed, around Los Angeles.
