Heigl: I wanted to quit acting

Katherine Heigl says she considered living off her savings and opening a knitting store.

• Katherine Heigl says she "couldn't say no" to rom-coms


• Heigl tells magazine she considered opening a knitting store


• Former "Grey's Anatomy" star has new TV show coming in November

(CNN) -- If watching Katherine Heigl's romantic comedies made you want to swear off movies, you've got company: the actress herself.

The former "Grey's Anatomy" star, who went from "27 Dresses" to "The Ugly Truth" to "Life as We Know It" to "New Year's Eve," admits she indulged a little too heavily in the frothy films -- enough to make her consider quitting acting.

"I had an amazing time. I love romantic comedies," the actress, 35, told Marie Claire UK in its August issue. "But maybe I hit it a little too hard. I couldn't say no. I stopped challenging myself."

It got so bad, Heigl said, that she took time on a Utah ranch to contemplate a different career.

"I had a moment where, I don't know, I was thinking, 'Maybe open a knitting store, get my money out of retirement accounts and live off that, live off the land.' I had my moment where it all seemed so complicated and all I wanted to do was simplify," she told the magazine.

Of course, Heigl has had ups and downs even without the film choices. She told Marie Claire that her best friend "turned on" her, and she's made some enemies in Hollywood with her blunt talk, criticizing "Grey's Anatomy" plotlines and knocking "Knocked Up," the hit film she starred in, as "a little sexist."

Heigl is returning to television in November as the star of NBC's "State of Affairs," a drama about a CIA analyst who advises the president. She's ready for the new challenge, she told Marie Claire.

"There's a part of me that's a Hollywood animal as well. I can't wait to get into the writer's room and see how we do this," she said. "I feel like I'm finally rolling into the next phase of my adulthood."