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Another Tragedy
RD: Your family dealt with another tragedy. You were seven when your older brother, then 15, was killed. What effect does something like that have?Heigl: It changes everything: the whole dynamic of the family and how you live. Everybody knows that at any given moment, something terrible could happen, but you don't think much about it until it does. I've always lived with the fear of loss.
RD: Were you aware of your parents' decision to donate Jason's organs?
Heigl: It just always seemed like the right thing to do. Now when I talk to people about organ donation and they have their misgivings, I can't quite understand it, because it's something I've always understood and believed in.
RD: So do you have a donor sticker on your driver's license?
Heigl: Oh, yeah.
RD: You work to encourage people to become donors, right?
Heigl: Yes. I'm involved with the Coalition on Donation. I know that it's a really hard conversation to have with someone because basically you're saying that if the worst possible thing in the world happens, what decision do you want to make? But I do think that people need to have that conversation.
RD: You were the youngest in your family. Were you treated like the baby?
Heigl: My siblings were ten, eight and four years older than me. They teased me relentlessly. My sister and I, we're much closer now, but when we were younger, we were so different.
RD: Growing up, was your home strict?
Heigl: My sister and I were raised Mormon, which is fairly black-and-white as far as rules go. You don't drink, and I had curfews and wasn't allowed to date before I was 16. I never rebelled. I'm so grateful I had that sort of black-and-white environment because it made it much easier to just be a kid. Life gets complicated and gray early enough.
RD: Your parents separated when you were 18 and divorced after that. Was that hard for you to deal with?
Heigl: No. It was so obvious after 30 years that these were two people not really living up to their full potential together. My parents have maintained a fairly decent relationship since. So it made it a lot easier to deal with.
RD: Was it financially daunting when you and your mom were first in L.A.?
Heigl: Yeah. My mom, who's my manager, walked away with some money from their divorce. She used it to buy a house in Calabasas but kept having to take loans out on the mortgage. She supported us with the money for a really long time; birthday money from her mother and residual checks [from my earlier modeling and acting] were a blessing.
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