(SV)U ROCK ‘OLIVIA’
Hargitay helps lost girl for real!
She’s a hero on and offscreen. Mariska Hargitay would have made her “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” character, Olivia Benson, proud last week when she helped a child find their parent after they assumed the actress was an on-duty police officer.
According to witnesses at the Anne Loftus Playground in Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan, the little girl became separated from her mother and ran up to Hargitay, 60, who was wearing a made-for-TV police badge on her belt amid filming a scene.
Witnesses told People the little girl was completely oblivious to the film crew and fellow “SVU” star Ice-T.
The Post reached out to Hargitay’s reps for comment.
After enlisting the help of the beloved actress, production on the final episodes of the show’s historic 25th season was halted for about 20 minutes as Hargitay helped the child locate her mom.
‘I love her so much’
Shortly after, mother and daughter were reunited and Hargitay was spotted comforting the pair. The moment went viral on X. “This is why I love her so much. She’s a real life hero,” one fan sobbed on the social media platform.
“OMG I love her so much, just the sweetest person ever,” a second person posted.
The NBC series has recently become the longest running primetime live-action series on American TV.
Shortly before the 25th-season premiere, Hargitay told People how the show has impacted her.
“We’ve been on a parallel journey,” she said. “There’s a thing: WWOBD, ‘What would Olivia Benson do?’ The fans would always talk about it, and one day it hit me. I also have those moments where I’ve sort of slipped into her.”
“If there’s a crisis, I just take over and lead like that. Being strong and fearless. It’s sort of this perfect feminist story.”
While some stars sometimes seem to drift to new projects, as co-star Christopher Meloni, 63, did in 2011 and Kelli Giddish did before returning for the most recent season, Hargitay is completely content to stay where she is.
“I have two diametrically opposed answers. One is: I can’t believe it’s been 25 years, a quarter of a century! And the other is, I can’t see it any other way,” she explained.
“I can’t imagine the show ending, and can’t imagine not going on this journey with my cast, my crew,” she added. “I have so much to look forward to. And I’m still growing. I like that you can be so many things at one time. It’s learning to give yourself permission to be all of yourself.”