Mariska Hargitay Filming 600th SVU Episode Ended in Tears
Mariska Hargitay marked 600 episodes of NBC's Law & Order: SVU with the November 12 hour 'Obedience,' which brings back Christopher Meloni as Stabler. She describes a emotional wrap dinner, a toast she read through tears and a story about Benson's voice.
Mariska Hargitay marked 600 episodes of NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" with an installment titled "Obedience," which aired November 12 and brings back Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler. Hargitay has played Captain Olivia Benson on the show since 1999. Her mix of exhaustion and emotion during the filming of 600 episodes' milestone shaped a wrap dinner she nearly skipped.
The run-up was relentless. In September she won two Emmys for her documentary "My Mom Jayne," then hosted the awards show the following week. She flew back to New York and began filming basketball player Jalen Brunson's episode of "SVU" the next day. Production on Episode 600 started four days after that ended.
The celebration dinner
"I wanted to go home and go to bed," Hargitay says of the celebration dinner. She went anyway. Current cast and crew sat at two tables with creator Dick Wolf, Wolf Entertainment chief operating officer Peter Jankowski and Meloni.
"It was one of the most extraordinary, meaningful nights, and unexpectedly so to me," she recalls. She says Wolf told the room, "This has never happened, and it will never happen again."
Hargitay was asked to give a toast. She read it in full during the interview and cried as she did. It opened: "Here we are at episode 600, and it really doesn't feel totally real."
Benson, Stabler and an old case
In the episode, Benson and Stabler reopen an old case, and their fraught relationship comes into play. Hargitay says a few scenes include "fun moments when they kind of mirror Mariska and Chris."
She says the hour leans into Benson's personal journey in a way the show never has. "It's about a woman having her voice and being submissive or subservient in a way, or giving up our power or our instinct, and that's an important story to tell," she says. "Because so many women identify with that."
She describes the pair's history as "intense." "Every relationship is fraught. Every relationship has power dynamics, and will they/won't they, and what could have been and what isn't and why," she says.
Meloni's place in the show
Meloni left in 2011 and has made a handful of guest appearances since. Jankowski says he "will always be a part of the show's DNA." He adds that for the last 15 years it has been Mariska's show: "She is the alpha dog now."
Hargitay is both star and executive producer. She now earns nearly $850,000 an episode. Through her Joyful Heart Foundation, she has also worked to shift the conversation around sexual assault and give victims a voice.
