Mariska Hargitay feels she wasn’t able to do enough to keep Kelli Giddish on Law and Order SVU.
Mariska Hargitay has admitted feeling “sore” about Kelli Giddish’s exit from Law and Order: SVU, believing that more could have been done.
Kelli had been behind Detective Amanda Rollins for 12 years and had grown to become an integral part of Captain Olivia Benson’s (played by Mariska) team since season 13.
Over the years, Benson and Rollins had become close both on and off the job so when Amanda said she was resigning to become a professor at Fordham University, the captain was gutted.
Amanda’s time on the NBC legal drama came shortly after her surprise wedding to Dominick “Sonny” Carisi (Peter Scanavino) who remains in the show.
When Hargitay, who is also an executive producer on SVU, was asked about co-star Kelli’s exit, the Benson actress admitted she wasn’t happy with the outcome.
“Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart. It’s a sore subject,” Hargitay admitted.
“I have a lot of say on the show, but I didn’t have enough there.
“I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right.
“That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two bad-a** women, so flawed and so there for each other.”
Elaborating, Hargitay continued: “That kind of integration has been the most liberating, because I can cry and I can be a bad-a** and scare the f*** out of you.
“We’re a pie; we have all these different pieces. I’m many things and I accept that.
“So being all of it makes me feel I’m more compassionate with myself and therefore others.”
It was Giddish’s decision to leave SVU behind as she previously stated it was “time” to bring Rollins’ story to a close.
She stated: “My side of things is just that it’s time in the Rollins storyline.
“I felt like where it was heading, and where it headed last night, just seemed the right place to leave it right now.”
But it hasn’t really been the end of Rollins though as she has already returned to SVU three times in season 25.
The most recent was in episode 11, Prima Nocta, which came out on Thursday, May 2, so she is expected to return for more when SVU is back for the 26th outing.
For now, though, there is just the series finale to get excited about with the team looking for a “pattern assailant before his crimes escalate to murder” in Duty To Hope.
