The actress is opening up about how she “manifested” the role that made her famous
Mariska Hargitay is opening up about how she “manifested” her now-iconic role on Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit.
Speaking on the Tuesday, June 16 episode of the I Am An Actor podcast, 62-year-old Hargitay said her lead role in the show was “another thing about manifesting,” and came in the wake of her stint on ER.
Hargitay had a recurring role on the medical dram’s fourth season, as desk clerk Cynthia Hooper.
“Well, it was another thing about manifesting is, after I was on ER was like the pinnacle and I thought, ‘Oh god, what do I do next?’ ” Hargitay said. “Like where do you go after ER? And I think I did like 18 or 20 episodes that year. ’97, ’98 I think was the year.”
She continued: “And I remember going, ‘Law and Order. That’s a really good show. It’s so solid. ‘ And I was like, ‘I want to be on Law and Order. I want to be on Law and Order.‘ You just put it out there.”
“I had to think of what I wanted to do next. And my dad used to say, ‘You got to see it. You got to see it to believe it,’ ” Hargitay said. “And so I just — I would I just put it out there. And I wanted to be specific. I think you have to be specific about what you want in life.”
Hargitay has portrayed Detective Olivia Benson since SVU began in 1999 — making her the longest-running primetime drama character in television history. She took on the role following a highly competitive casting process in the spring of 1999, after Law & Order creator Dick Wolf wrote the pilot script for the series revolving around a strong female detective.
