The SVU star and Dann Florek shared a “very cute scene” when Amanda Rollins made her debut in 2012.
As fans relish in the triumphant return of Detective Amanda Rollins on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 27, ride-or-dies know that Kelli Giddish has been kicking criminal butt since literally day one on the squad.
Giddish graced fans with Rollins’ arrival at the 16th Precinct in the Season 13 premiere of SVU (“Scorched Earth”), joining the elite squad after building her career in Atlanta before accepting a job offer in Manhattan. While Rollins showed up instantly ready to prove herself on the SVU beat, her introduction was a tad rocky after Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) met her new squad mate fresh off the shocking departure of her former partner, Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni).
While most detectives usually have a meeting with their captain or set up their desk before jumping into an investigation, Rollins showed up at the precinct just as then Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek) mobilized his unit to prevent an Italian diplomat and suspect from fleeing the country. And she wasn’t missing out.
Looking back on Amanda Rollins’ first day at the SVU
Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) appear in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 13 Episode 1.
Photo: Will Hart/NBC
As Cragen urged the SVU squad to mobilize, he was made to leave the precinct to help. But just as Cragen reached the elevator, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Rollins recognized him as she arrived.
“Oh, Captain Cragen!” Rollins said as her boss rushed inside the elevator.
“Excuse me?” Cragen asked in a rush.
“I’m Detective Amanda Rollins,” she reminded him with a sweet Georgian twang. “You interviewed me last month.”
“Well, you picked a hell of a first day,” Cragen said, in a rush to get out of the precinct ASAP. “I’ll fill you in later.”
But before Cragen could slam that elevator button and leave, Rollins refused to be kept out of the loop.
“You can fill me in now!” Rollins said. Upon catching a roaming officer, she quickly handed them her belongings with effortless charm. “Hey, stash that for me somewhere, hun? Thank you!”
Rollins joined an impressed Cragen in the elevator. “I’m ready to work,” she told him, immediately jumping into the precinct chaos.
Kelli Giddish called Rollins an “eager beaver” during her first scene on SVU
In a behind-the-scenes video from the 2012 episode, Giddish broke down some of the exciting highlights from Rollins’ first SVU episode, telling producers that they were filming the “very cute” scene in which Rollins crossed paths with Cragen in the elevator.
“It’s me seeing Captain Cragen and being very eager — eager beaver— to work. We go straight into the scene, and then we come back here, and you see me later, I get to meet Mariska for the first time,” Giddish said at the time.
“And my character is very familiar with [Benson’s] work and is very excited to be working here, you know, the best SVU unit in the country,” Giddish continued. “So, it’s a joy to see, to play that, you know? Because you are the new kid on the block, as well, so I got to play that throughout this whole episode.”
The SVU stars were beaming in the nostalgic clip as Giddish goofed off in the elevator lobby with Florek. The energy of the scene clearly had everyone buzzing with excitement.
Mariska Hargitay called her SVU co-star Kelli Giddish her “heart”
Benson and Rollins grew into a steel-tight duo after a decade-plus of closing cases together. But it wasn’t always easy. Rollins watched Benson’s eventual promotion to captain, while Benson witnessed Rollins recover from a gambling addiction and later fall in love with SVU A.D.A. Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino), celebrating their wedding day and newborn with the squad.
Even after Rollins’ exit from the precinct in Season 24 of SVU, she kept in close contact with her captain, assisting the detectives on several cases with each Giddish guest star moment. After so many years of navigating on-screen baggage together, Hargitay was always “eager beaver” to welcome Giddish back.
“Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart…” Hargitay told TODAY in a May 2024 interview. “That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.”
Giddish agreed with the behind-the-scenes camaraderie, telling TODAY that Benson and Rollins’ heartfelt dynamic is shared between Hargitay and Giddish off-camera, as well.
“That relationship really developed organically over time into such a strong female relationship. And it wasn’t like I came on the show 12 years ago and we were like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be your best buddy,’” Giddish recalled fondly. “It wasn’t that. Every step of the way was earned… So it was really fun to play, and it kind of mirrors mine and Mariska’s relationship in real life.”
