Former Law & Order: SVU Series Regular Discusses Rollins’ New Dynamic With Benson & “Healthy Relationship” With Carisi

Kelli Giddish returned to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit during season 26, episode 3, “Divide & Conquer.” The installment aired on October 17 and featured a reunion between Amanda Rollins and her former partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). She departed the series in 2022 after marrying Dominick Carisi and has appeared as a guest star in both SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Now working at the NYPD Intelligence Bureau, “Divide & Conquer” sees Rollins approach the case differently from Benson. While the latter remains focused on the victim, the sergeant’s prime objective is catching the perpetrator. Giddish shares that she was fascinated to learn about Rollins’ new position, as it opens up an entirely new world for the character. The former series regular also enjoyed working with John Clarence Stewart and shares that their onscreen partnership already had a “spark of kismet”.

Screen Rant interviews Giddish about reuniting with the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit team, Carisi and Rollins’ home life, and whether she’d like to appear throughout the Dick Wolf universe.

Giddish Says Rollins’ Skills Are Being Utilized At The NYPD Intelligence Bureau

Screen Rant: How would you say Rollins has settled into the Intelligence Bureau?

Kelli Giddish: She’s now a sergeant at the NYPD Intelligence Bureau, and she’s got a new partner, Detective Corgan, played by John Clarence Stewart. You immediately saw her giving a briefing to the NYPD brass, which is something you would never see Detective Rollins doing.

You saw her already being thrown into this new position, and her poise within that, and all of the things that make Rollins, Rollins, are really used to her advantage in this. I was fascinated when the writers told me they were thinking about putting her in the Intelligence Bureau because they would tell me some of the stories that they’ve heard from the people that actually are in the Intelligence Bureau.

I’m just fascinated with these stories and how much they know and the things that they’ve had to do to get information, and the fact that the NYPD has a global presence for this to gather intelligence because it’s New York City. It opened up this whole other world and just seeing Rollins thrown into it seemed very natural and really exciting to play.

Can you talk about Rollins’ partnership with Detective Corgan?

Kelli Giddish: I wasn’t familiar with [John Clarence Stewart’s] work, and so I went on Google like anybody else, and I was like, “Oh, he was born in the same place I was in real life,” so automatically we had something to talk about. He’s from Georgia.

We were both born in Stone Mountain, and so, right off the bat, we had an actual spark of kismet. That was really nice to run with. Just seeing how much is said subliminally, what kind of language they have without having to talk and that kind of thing was really fun to play with.

Rollins And Carisi Are In A Stable And Healthy Relationship In The Law & Order Franchise

It was great to see Rollins work with the SVU characters again, but how does she feel about everything? Did it bring up any nostalgia or sadness?

Kelli Giddish: I think she’s really grateful. She decided to make this move from teaching, and the light is back in her eyes. She’s so excited. She’s so curious about this world, and she’s fascinated just like I am personally. She tells Benson, “It’s eavesdropping on the whole world.” She’s totally thrown into this new arena and loves it. Rollins has always been concerned first and foremost about the survivor in SVU.

I think that’s still her history—she’s a survivor herself. But, I think in this, you saw her objective differ a little bit. She’s not Special Victims Unit. She’s trying to get these bad guys come hell or high water. That kind of differs from Benson’s objective, which is always to take care of the survivor first and foremost. You got to see, “But we have to get the bad guys.”

It was fun to play that dynamic between Rollins and Benson where they’ve always been totally in sync, and now it’s like, “We have a little bit of a different objective here, and how are we both going to be happy, and how are we both going to get what we need?” Because we have such a long history, Mariska [Hargitay] and I and Benson and Rollins, those conversations are able to be played out in such a real organic way.

I know that fans are hoping to see more of Rollins’ marriage to Carisi and her family life. Is that something that could happen in the future?

Kelli Giddish: Sure. I would hope that we would get put in their household, again. I think everybody likes to see Peter [Scanavino] be a dad. That’s always fun. He really is the baby whisperer on set. Anytime there’s a baby, it’s like, “Give him to Peter if he’s not happy.” It’s a stable, healthy relationship now. You sense that because Rollins is now matured and is able to take these risks with her career because she knows she has such a solid foundation at home.

Giddish Is Open To Playing In Other Dick Wolf Shows

Screen Rant: It feels like Rollins’ new job in the Intelligence Bureau could overlap with so many different shows in the Dick Wolf universe. Would you be open to being on One Chicago or another Law & Order series again?

Kelli Giddish: I think that’d be so much fun. And what an opportunity that Dick Wolf and company has set up with us all inhabiting the same world that that’s actually possible. When I went over to Chicago P.D., years ago, it was so much fun. You get to be on a completely different set with a completely different cast and crew, and you get to go play for a week, so I’m definitely open to any of that.

Screen Rant: Fans are also rallying for you to get your own Law & Order spinoff. Is that something that you would want?

Kelli Giddish: I’m so flattered to hear that that’s something that people have been even talking about. That’s really, really sweet. So keep talking about it.

What is a story that you would like to see explored for Rollins that you didn’t get to do on SVU?

Kelli Giddish: I think they’ve done such a good job in [season 26, episode 3] with her being on the tail of these crime tourists, which is something I’d never heard of before. It’s something that’s not in the world of SVU. You get to hear about this other total world through Rollins and what she’s doing, and I filmed another episode that’ll air in November, and it’s so wild and so out of the ordinary for SVU.

I think the audiences are going to be like, “Oh my God, what’s happening?” It’s really fun to be a part of that. It’s all about our characters and how they interact. All of that is so ripe with things that the audience knows about us. The writers can take wild chances with the episodes, and I think they do a really good job with the [other one I’ve filmed].

About Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Now in its 25th anniversary season on NBC, this hard-hitting and emotional series chronicles the lives of the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, an elite squad of detectives who investigate crimes of sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence.

As commander of the SVU, Capt. Olivia Benson, portrayed by the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Mariska Hargitay, is a seasoned veteran of the unit who has seen it all. She leads with empathy and professionalism, all the while dealing with her difficult past as a product of rape and her responsibility as a trailblazer in survivor advocacy, both of which influence the way she relates to the victims and perpetrators of each case.