‘She’s not worth it’

Katherine Heigl has been branded a "difficult" actress to work with by Hollywood insiders.

Although Heigl – who famously turned down an Emmy nomination for her performance on Grey’s Anatomy because she felt the material she had been given wasn’t good enough – has received the greenlight to produce and star in an upcoming CIA drama, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Heigl has a bad reputation among movie and television executives.

A source, who worked on the 2010 comedy Life As We Know It, told The Hollywood Reporter: "She can cost you time every single day of shooting. Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the trailer, questioning the script every single day."

The source added that the 34-year-old actress’s mother and manager Nancy Heigl was even more difficult.

The insider said: "I have never experienced anything like Nancy Heigl. It’s about the mouth. ‘F**k you. You are a f**king liar.’ Whatever you’d say, you were an idiot. The call would be, ‘This is the worst craft service we’ve ever had! There’s nothing to eat! This is the worst wardrobe!’ You knew that every day, you were going to get slammed.

"The frustrating part is [Heigl] is incredibly talented and smart."

A source from the set of Heigl’s 2008 hit 27 Dresses backed up the accusations, saying: "There were movie-star demands – big rooms, the mother there, all the stuff … It was just a sense of entitlement. The biggest stars don’t do that kind of thing."

And the diva behaviour is seemingly costing Heigl work, with a top television producer saying that they had actively decided against her for a show they were producing, adding: "On many levels, she would have been perfect for the role, but all of us said, ‘She’s not worth it’."

Another red flag for executives is Heigl’s tendency to publicly criticise her projects. Along with her Grey’s Emmy refusal, Heigl publicly denounced her first hit film Knocked Up as "sexist".

At one point, Heigl commanded around $12-million for a role, and pulled in over $200-million worldwide for her romantic comedy The Ugly Truth. In comparison, the latest Heigl-led film One for the Money, only managed $37-million worldwide.

As The Hollywood Reporter says: "Hollywood has infinite patience with difficult talents – until the box office stops booming."

However, Heigl does have some support. Her Life As You Know It director Greg Berlanti said: "I would work with her again in a heartbeat."