She is gorgeous and talented and she is only 26!
With a healthy dose of envy, JEZEBEL settles down for a
chat with Katherine Heigl, television’s sweetest surgeon.
Just before the second season of the hit ABC show, Grey’s
Anatomy, takes flight, we caught up with Katherine Heigl, one of
the show’s grounded and gorgeous interns, to learn that she had
a happy, normal childhood, is kind of squeamish about surgery
and truly adores her castmates. Oh, and she recently started
dating a musician from Georgia. We’ve captured her spirit in our
fascinating conversation and one-of-a-kind photos.
In all honesty, it’s a little easy to be intimidated by
Katherine Heigl. Starring as Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens in one
of television’s hottest shows, ABC’s Grey Anatomy, she
also is a seasoned actor model, and, to put it mildly, she’s
absolutely stunning. Spend five minutes chatting with her,
though, and it’s as if you have known her forever. Open,
friendly and funny, Heigl comes across as the girl next door,
albeit one who, despite being only 26, has been working for more
than 15 years. Born in Washington, D.C., Heigl grew up in New
Cannan, Conn., and began her modeling career at the tender age
of 9. Shots for JCPenney, Sears and Lord & Taylor gave way to
commercials, which led her into the world of television and
acting.
Unlike some other child stars, there has been no sting in
rehab or a tell-all autobiography about a robbed childhood. For
Heigl, it was just something she enjoyed. "It was totally normal
for me," she says. "Everybody else was doing after-school sports
and programs. My after-school program happened to be acting and
modeling. It was sort of peripheral, and I was really passionate
about it. I really loved it." However, this is not the story of
a girl who grew up too fast. In fact, Heigl delighted in being
able to do both. "Yeah, I missed some slumber parties," she
says, "I missed some school class trips, but I still had a great
high school experience, got to hang out with my friends all the
time. It was a perfect balance for me."
After making her feature film debut in That Night with
Juliette Lewis and C. Thomas Howell, Heigl appeared in Steven
Soderbergh’s critically acclaimed Depression-era drama, Kind
of The Hill. The following year, she landed her first
leading role in 1994 opposite Gerard Depardieu in the feel-good
comedy My Father The Hero. Heigl played Nicole,
Dépardieu's teenage daughter who, in her quest to impress a guy
she meets on a family vacation, lies and claims her father is
her lover, which leads to a chain of disastrous events. "It was
great!" Heigl says. "It was a really exciting time, and that was
an amazing fun movie to make. I was in the Bahamas for three
months. It doesn’t get really much better than that!"
