Mariska Hargitay takes a walk down memory lane as she rewatches scenes of her iconic character Olivia Benson on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.' Mariska dishes on her first on-screen hug with Christopher Meloni, her experience directing her very own 'SVU' episode for Season 25 and so much more.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 25 is now available to stream on Peacock.
Director: Jameer Pond
Director of Photography: Bradley Wickham
Editor: Richard Trammell
Talent: Mariska Hargitay
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Lyla Neely
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Jenna Caldwell
Camera Operator: Mar Alfonso
Gaffer: Niklas Moller
Audio Engineer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Erica Palmieri
Set Designer: Jeremy D. Myles
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Lyla Neely
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 25 is now available to stream on Peacock.
Director: Jameer Pond
Director of Photography: Bradley Wickham
Editor: Richard Trammell
Talent: Mariska Hargitay
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Romeeka Powell
Associate Producer: Lyla Neely
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Jenna Caldwell
Camera Operator: Mar Alfonso
Gaffer: Niklas Moller
Audio Engineer: Sean Paulsen
Production Assistant: Erica Palmieri
Set Designer: Jeremy D. Myles
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Lyla Neely
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Can you identify this sound?
00:02Duh.
00:04Doesn't ring a bell.
00:06That is the story of my life, that sound.
00:09Dun-dun.
00:10I understand why people can't agree on it.
00:14They write dun-dun, but it is a very layered sound.
00:17So I stand with the people that say clink-clank.
00:21I stand with them.
00:22Hi, I'm Mariska Hargitay,
00:23and we're going to be looking at some scenes
00:26from Law & Order Special Victims Unit
00:27for over the past 25 seasons.
00:46We came across the desert and through the big fence.
00:49A man was waiting.
00:50He took me to New York.
00:52And this was after your mom died?
00:54No, she was still alive.
00:57This is very funny to me,
00:58because I'm just, it's all coming back to me.
01:00When are you coming to get me?
01:02Soon, Maria.
01:04You have to be brave.
01:05I did this entire episode with the script supervisor
01:11reading the lines off camera.
01:13And we put in the voice afterwards,
01:16and that was the hardest thing ever.
01:18Because I've got the script supervisor,
01:19whatever her lines are, they're,
01:20come help me, come help me.
01:21Please, when are you coming to get me?
01:23Going, come help me, come help me.
01:26I'm in a room, I don't know where I am.
01:28I should have won an Emmy just for that, okay?
01:31Actually, they should give me another one for that.
01:32Maria, listen to me, Richard isn't going to hurt you.
01:35The other thing about this episode,
01:37Ted Kochif, who was our directing producer at the time,
01:40would only shoot pieces, four lines at a time,
01:44which is very hard for an actor for flow.
01:47I don't like stopping.
01:48I like doing the whole scene.
01:50With this, we do one or two lines,
01:51and he's like, good, got it, moving on.
01:53So it was really disjointed,
01:55and not to mention, we don't even shoot the episode
01:57in order, so it was really mental gymnastics
02:01to keep track of where I was in the episode,
02:05plus not acting with an actor,
02:07but just somebody reading the lines.
02:09This ground's been disturbed.
02:13Footprint.
02:14We need to dig, get some tools.
02:16Okay, you wouldn't get pieces of fence, anything.
02:18Such weird wardrobe choice.
02:23Is that going to a rugby game?
02:25But moving on.
02:29I remember shooting this scene, it was so hard.
02:31The little girl was buried underground,
02:33and I was so stressed out
02:36about how long she was under there.
02:39We feel so protective of the actors
02:43and the people that play these characters,
02:45because so many times, I mean,
02:46we find bodies in the snow, in the cold, when it's raining.
02:49It's okay, honey.
02:51It's okay.
02:53Good girl.
02:55It's okay, honey.
02:56You know, the actors are usually so like,
02:58no, this is fun for me,
02:59but it still can be traumatizing or triggering,
03:02and for this sweet little girl that was so game,
03:05I just remember being so tight.
03:07When I was little, that day, I remember that.
03:17How's the baby?
03:20Oh, great.
03:33If I'm correct, I think that's the first time
03:35we ever hugged on the show,
03:38and he surprised me with it,
03:41and it was so right, and in that scene,
03:43I think it's somewhere where you can really feel
03:46everything unspoken,
03:48almost more than the spoken word.
03:51Chris and I were very careful and very judicious
03:54the way we interacted physically.
03:57I think Chris and I, Benson and Stabler,
04:00at the end of the day, it's all the same.
04:02Pick a name?
04:04In the relationship, whether it was acting
04:07or being partners, there was a level of trust.
04:11If I had like six dots, and this was him, and this was me,
04:15and then you connect the dots,
04:16they connected so many ways.
04:18Acting partners, friends, comedians,
04:22people that hold each other accountable.
04:24We almost had like our own language.
04:26I mean, here we were for these 12 years,
04:28and we spent more time with each other than our spouses.
04:31All day, we were making this thing together,
04:34all day long, that we built together,
04:36that we created together.
04:38Kathy wants to name him after me.
04:40Just what the world needs, another Elliot Stabler.
04:43The level of trust was deep.
04:45It's crazy, it's profound, right?
04:48That would do anything for you.
04:50And that's what we were, is having that person,
04:53not a boyfriend, not a wife, not a sexual relationship,
04:56but that person that you can trust
05:00in all that that means.
05:02Oh, is this the game here?
05:04Make Mariska cry, okay.
05:05That was very beautiful to watch.
05:10Because usually you watch old scenes,
05:12and you go, I do it differently now.
05:14You know, I could bring more colors to it.
05:16But it's also nice to see something beautiful
05:18for what it is, and love it.
05:26You walk out that door,
05:28and we will pretend that this never happened.
05:30You'd pretend that this didn't happen, would you?
05:33Ah!
05:34You're lying.
05:36It's funny, you do these scenes,
05:38and then you have to put it out of your mind,
05:41almost self-protection, to go on and do the job at hand.
05:46There's something I think that you should hear.
05:49Hey, Liv, it's me.
05:51Look, I know we were talking about getting together tomorrow,
05:55but these guys are jerking me around over here.
05:57I gotta pull a double.
05:58It was one of the first times
06:00when Olivia really wasn't in control,
06:03and at points there was no recourse, and he was a sadist.
06:08Billy, I'm offering you a way out.
06:12You're still bargaining with me?
06:14Really?
06:15That is profoundly frightening,
06:17when somebody doesn't regard another human being as human.
06:20I think the most scary thing
06:22is when somebody is dealing with somebody,
06:24a violent person, who's not present.
06:27And the idea of not being able to get through
06:29to another human being is dark as it gets.
06:32I'm an NYPD detective.
06:35My partner, my squad,
06:38the entire department will hunt you down.
06:41Pablo Schreiber, amazing actor and amazing scene partner,
06:45scared the shit out of me.
06:47Even though some of these scenes
06:48were on the edge of being out of control,
06:51I always felt very safe with him.
06:54It will rain back down on you.
06:57You know what?
07:02Let it rain.
07:04This was an episode outside the comfort zone,
07:07and where you have to live in the unknown,
07:10because you don't know what's gonna happen,
07:12or if you can get out of it.
07:19Please don't come in, please.
07:23That's it, that's it, satisfied?
07:25You can end this right now.
07:27All you have to do is walk out that door.
07:29Nah, I think it's a little too late for me.
07:31How great is this kid, Riley?
07:33Are you a man, Seth, or are you an animal?
07:39Animals are weak.
07:40He's so money, we need our own show.
07:43Are you?
07:44No.
07:46Well, then I think you know what your next step is.
07:50This was a case that pushed Olivia Benson
07:53out of her comfort zone, and was so,
07:57triggering.
07:58It's called Children's of Wolves,
07:59obviously dealing with the animal in all of us,
08:02the animal that we need to tame.
08:03And I wanted to do something outside my comfort zone.
08:08Every time I direct, I'm utterly terrified,
08:10and I say, what am I doing?
08:12And then I start directing, and I go,
08:15oh, yeah, I remember.
08:16A director, it takes eight days to shoot an episode,
08:19but you have eight days of prep,
08:21and that's when most directors do all their work,
08:23is in prep, and I don't get that.
08:25I was also heavily featured in the episode before,
08:29and I sort of begged them to write a lighter episode
08:32for me so I could do my prep.
08:34The director who went before me got COVID,
08:37and so I had to shoot.
08:38I had two days of prep, and then they're like,
08:40okay, Mariska, she can do it, and I sort of,
08:43like, what, what, what?
08:45Do they think I have superhero powers?
08:47Because I don't, and I've only directed
08:49nine hours of television, so everyone needs to calm down.
08:53Hold your fire!
08:54It was very challenging,
08:56and this day was particularly challenging
08:58because this was the whole mobilization unit,
09:01you know, I had 100 background, and all of the cast,
09:04and not to mention all the kids inside,
09:07and the best part about this is if you see this scene,
09:11it's not raining, and in the next scene, it's pouring,
09:15and it wasn't supposed to rain till the next day,
09:17so I shoot this scene, and I'm like,
09:19oh, I'm gonna have to do this,
09:20and it wasn't supposed to rain till the next day,
09:21so I shoot this scene, and then all of a sudden,
09:24the skies opened up, it was like a comedy,
09:26and I was like, ooh, ooh,
09:28because all you can do is make peace with it,
09:30but there were so many degrees of difficulty.
09:33You don't have the luxury of a movie of time.
09:36We have, like, eight days, baby.
09:37This is the schedule,
09:38because we got another one starting in eight days, so.
09:41âȘâȘ
09:48Liv?
09:49Elliot's here.
09:52Do as he says, El.
09:53Liv, you all right?
09:55Elliot, please, just do what he says.
09:57Liv, shut up!
09:59It's very interesting watching that,
10:01because I don't remember it at all.
10:05Do you remember the pillow fight in Bryan Park?
10:07I do.
10:08That wasn't the same episode, was it?
10:09It was.
10:10Oh.
10:11We are here to celebrate the unexpected.
10:16I mean, who thinks of a pillow fight at Bryan Park?
10:20Let's put him in Bryan Park with a pillow fight.
10:21Pillows?
10:25Oh, yeah, right, right, right, right.
10:30You could arrest a man for littering.
10:31To watch somebody in utter flow,
10:34to watch flow happening,
10:37that which is invisible,
10:39he was the personification of.
10:41It was magnificent.
10:43Different every time, funny every time,
10:46and truthful, and believable,
10:48and what is happening,
10:51how am I so lucky that I get to witness it?
10:54It was magic.
10:56Everything was electric with him.
10:58Like, there was no line between sort of acting
11:00and who he was as a person,
11:02and the most fun person,
11:05and the most generous,
11:07and it was pure joy,
11:11and he made all of us feel so special.
11:16I remember my son was, I think, two or three,
11:19and Robin grabbed him and picked him up,
11:21and was so kind in doing voices for him.
11:26And you're just in this moment going,
11:28I'm pinching myself that I get to live
11:30in the same time with somebody so magnetic,
11:33and so magic,
11:36and so generous that you go,
11:38I'm just different,
11:39because we got to breathe the same oxygen.
11:43It was pretty great.
11:45May I tie my shoe?
11:48Yeah, sure, go ahead.
11:49Thank you.
11:52Oh yeah, and didn't we all blow up here?
11:58Yes, I did that stunt that day.
12:00I'm pretty athletic,
12:02and I would push hard.
12:04I don't anymore,
12:05but at the time, I pushed hard to do my own stunts
12:09as long as I was safe,
12:11but these kinds of things, yes, I did,
12:13and I loved it, and it was super fun that day.
12:15It was so cool, yeah.
12:17When you're doing it,
12:17and you're shooting 10 months a year,
12:19I'm just trying to do what's in front of me.
12:21I have to focus on the day's work,
12:23and then the next day's work,
12:24and the next day's work,
12:25so I haven't had the luxury to sit in it.
12:29It's a marathon that I've been running.
12:32I mean, this is so joyful for me to sit here
12:34and sort of revel in it,
12:36and re-experience it again.
12:38This is a gift.
12:44Thank you for watching,
12:46and for going on this journey with me.