Why Katherine Heigl Hated Her Role In Knocked Up
Elijah King
Published Mar 30, 2026
It's hard to forget that Katherine Heigl starred in the 2007 comedy "Knocked Up" along with Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Charlyne Yi, and more (via IMDb). And while the movie remains a fan favorite nearly 15 years after it first premiered, Heigl wasn't too thrilled about playing her character, Alison Scott, as she revealed to Vanity Fair in 2008.
"It was a little sexist," she explained. "It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. It exaggerated the characters, and I had a hard time with it, on some days. I'm playing such a b***h; why is she being such a killjoy? Why is this how you're portraying women? 98% of the time it was an amazing experience, but it was hard for me to love the movie."
However, during an interview with Howard Stern, Heigl backtracked on her original comments, saying, "I liked the movie a lot. I just didn't like me. She [my character] was kind of like, she was so judgmental and kind of uptight and controlling and all these things and I really went with it while we were doing it, and a lot of it, Judd allows everyone to be very free and improvise and whatever, and afterwards, I was like, 'Why is that where I went with this? What an a**hole she is!'"