MARISKA HARGITAY
TALKS LAW & ORDER: SVU SEASON 21
Incense candles. Wonder Woman figurines. Framed hand-drawn sketches of her favorite evening gowns. Photos of her three kids. Books by authors Gloria Steinem and Roxane Gay. A replica of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. These are just some of the items inside Mariska Hargitay’s private enclave on the Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit set in New York City’s Chelsea Piers studios. She decorated the place—her “escape” from work—herself.
“I barricade myself in here to get a little inspiration because I’d be lying if I said it isn’t difficult to be inundated with the material. It’s still a difficult world for me.”
That world, playing empathetic detective-turned-lieutenant Olivia Benson, has provided deep satisfaction for two decades. Hargitay, 55, is entering her 21st season on the gritty NBC crime drama, premiering new episodes Sept. 26. That’s one season longer than Gunsmoke and the original Law & Order, which both shared the previous record as the longest-running drama series. Asked about the endurance of the series, Hargitay, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner, refers to notes she has written to
make sure she captures the passion she feels about the show.
“SVU S resonates because it’s a path to healing and a path to survivorship,” she says. “Each week, Olivia Benson and the team depict an environment of compassion, sympathy and justice, providing hope to those who experience shame and isolation caused by sexual violence. The conversations that the show inspires have brought a greater awareness and understanding of the issues. And every disclosure is a chance to show that a victim is to be believed.”
Indeed, Hargitay’s role has an impact far beyond awards and records. Unlike the rest of the actors in the Law & Order galaxy, she started receiving a specific kind of fan mail early into the show’s run: letters from victims of sexual assault who felt blamed themselves and wanted to reach out to her character, who is deeply sympathetic with victims of sex crimes and often quick to believe their stories.
“I am not a therapist and I didn’t know how to respond,” she recalls. “I wanted them to have a safe space.” She created the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, which helps survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse of all sexes and ages. She also advocates for the examination of untested rape kits, as chronicled in I
Am Evidence, a documentary she co-produced in 2017. (A rape kit contains DNA and other evidence gathered from the victim that, if tested and examined, could help identify on-record rapists or criminals.)
A STAR IS BORN
Though she’s the glamorous Los Angeles–raised daughter of bodybuilder-actor Mickey Hargitay and bombshell actress Jayne Mansfield—who died in a car accident in 1967 when Hargitay was just 3 years old—she doesn’t believe she was fated for the spotlight. “When I was younger, I had no interest in being g in this business,” she says. Her early dreams were of traveling the world as an interpreter or diplomat.
Not that she didn’t overachieve. A student at L.A.’s Marymount High School, Hargitay was a cheerleader, played volleyball and ran cross-country, and she was the class president in 10th grade. She did a few plays too, prompting her to become a theater major at UCLA. She was a member of the comedy troupe the Groundlings. She joined the pageant circuit and was crowned Miss Beverly Hills in 1982 and placed fourth runner-up in the 1983 Miss California pageant.
Hargitay spent nearly 15 years in Hollywood trying to establish herself as an actress. “The 20s were rough,” she says with a smile. That’s her cavorting around in a cheesy 1984 music video for country singer Ronnie Milsap’s song “She Loves My Car.” A 15-episode stint on the hit prime-time soap Falcon Crest in 1988 didn’t provide much traction. Appearances on Baywatch, Thirtysomething,
Wiseguy and Seinfeld came and went. Her scenes in
1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie were cut out entirely. She paid the bills by working long shifts at L.A. bookstore Book Soup.
It was during these tougher moments that she turned to her father, a 1955 Mr. Universe and champion speed skater who didn’t start lifting weights until he was 26. “I could have quit a million times, but my dad drilled into me that our family doesn’t quit,” she says. “So if you don’t get it, it means you’re not ready and you have to get up and try again. There’s really something to be said for perseverance and not throwing in the towel.”
Though her father died in 2006, he remains a central figure in her life. Picking up a Wonder Woman figurine, she muses, “She’s the female
We both treasure family and have the same moral compass. But we’re also communicators.
version of him, because Mr. Universe was kind of a superhero. My dad gave me so much advice and shored me up so young. He used to say to me, ‘What does it matter what other people think?’ He was so clear in what it took to succeed.”
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
By the time Hargitay turned 34 in 1998, she finally sensed that good things were coming her way. “My mom passed when she was 34, so I knew it would be a really big year for me. And it was,” she says. First she survived a motorcycle accident—she wasn’t driving—that sent her flying through the air and hitting the pavement, lucky to be alive. She also wrapped a successful arc as a nurse who romanced Anthony Edwards’ character on the top-rated medical drama ER. “It was the first time I felt locked and loaded,” she says. “It was my favorite show and I got to work with Anthony, George Clooney and
Julianna Margulies. But I remember going, ‘What am I going to do now?’ ”
Then she got her hands on the pilot script for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
She joked that she knew producer Dick Wolf liked to cast brunettes. “I was like, ‘This is it!’ ” she recalls. “My manager was worried because it was very dark and not up my alley, because I liked comedy. And I was like, ‘This
is right up my alley.’ Never in my life had something been more known to me.” She auditioned three times before landing the star-making role.
SVU fans have learned over the years that the mother of Olivia, her character, was a victim of rape, which resulted in Olivia’s conception. Olivia was attacked by a corrections officer while working undercover as an inmate in a women’s prison. She’s been kidnapped and held hostage. Olivia is also a proud mom to a son named Noah. As Hargitay gives a walking tour of the expansive, mostly windowless SVU headquarters— she films half on soundstages, half on the streets of New York City for 10 months out of the year—she says she’s still learning how the lawenforcement system works. “Every week,” she says, “I get a research packet to learn how to become a better detective.”
THE HOME FRONT
Offscreen, however, Hargitay needed no study guides to fall for the handsome actor who began playing defense attorney Trevor Langan in early 2002. She and Peter Hermann went on their first date on June 3, 2002, and wed in 2004.
The secret to a now-15year-old Hollywood marriage? Well, for one thing, they don’t live in Hollywood. Hargitay and Hermann— who currently stars on the TV Land comedy Younger— reside on the Upper West Side of New York City with their three kids, August, 13, and Amaya and Andrew, both 8.
No matter how challenging her day, Hargitay declares that she goes into wife-and-mom mode the moment she walks through the front door. “My kids change my cellular makeup energy, and I’m so grateful for that balance,” she says. The family just returned
from their Long Island, N.Y., summer home, where they played tennis, went swimming and “just hung out.” They also like to watch movies together. A recent selection: Back to the
Future, starring family friend Michael J. Fox.
“Sometimes I feel like an octopus being pulled in so many directions,” she admits. “I have so many different joys. I’m acting, producing, directing and having meetings for my foundation. Then I’m a wife and a mom, and you have to keep watering that garden. Relationships don’t just stay great.” Even coming back from the summer vacation, “It’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I do have a life! I have hobbies! I do have friends!’ ”
She wouldn’t trade it all for anything—and, per her family creed, she refuses to quit. “This is all good stuff and I’m fulfilled,” she says. “The show is all-consuming, but it’s still so good because we’re deeply invested. We are all here, more than ever, and I still appreciate it more than you know. Gratitude is my mantra.”