Grey's Anatomy: Katherine Heigl Used A Real Tragedy To Make Denny's Death Powerful

Anyone who has watched Shonda Rhimes' empire of television shows knows that the prolific showrunner needs no help with crafting heartbreaking moments. In the "Grey's Anatomy" timeline, the lives and loves of the Seattle Grace interns are chock full of drama and tears. But when it comes to the devastating death of everyone's favorite patient Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), scene partner Katherine Heigl made sure that the sequence was even more heartbreaking. 

After Izzie (Heigl) falls in love with her patient and commits unethical practices to get him a heart, Denny dies anyway. And if that weren't enough to devolve viewers into tears, Heigl went the extra mile to sell the emotion.

"When it got to the point where he dies and she's laying in the bed with him, I wanted so badly to nail that scene," Heigl reflected for Variety. She went on to share with former co-star Ellen Pompeo: "And the worst was that I really went there. I was 7 when my brother died, but we were in the hospital for a week. I don't enjoy thinking about that much or that week in the hospital or him in that bed, but I chose to do that for that scene." 

By all accounts, Heigl's emotional work made the scene even more heart-wrenching. But you if ask the actor, it isn't something she would choose to do again.

Katherine Heigl's tragic experience at such a young age informed the Season 2 "Grey's Anatomy" scene but was too immersive for the actor. After throwing herself into the scene, Heigl told Ellen Pompeo about the difficulties of the experience.

"I don't think I would put myself in that headspace again to achieve that. I think I would try harder to just act it," Heigl noted. The "27 Dresses" actor got her chance in recent years. Starring in the Netflix series "Firefly Lane," Heigl got to explore mature themes in its two-season tenure. Revolving around the decades-long friendship between Tully (Heigl) and Kate (Sarah Chalke), the series explores life events that many have experienced and are rarely shown on long-form television. The Season 2 finale ends with Kate dying of cancer, but this time around, Heigl did not have to reach too deep to access those emotions.

"I was maybe 27 years old. I had the sad playlist that brought up all those emotions. I kept bringing myself back to when my brother died in the hospital, and I had to dive into all this darkness and sadness to get myself there," Heigl told Forbes about filming her breakout "Grey's" role. "I don't know if it informed my performance or not or if it made it any better or worse than it would have been, but I didn't even remotely have to do that with ['Firefly Lane']." Heigl's friendship with Chalke was the only thing she needed to invest in a compelling performance.