Christopher Meloni

OF ‘LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME’ ON NBC

Before resuming the role, did you have any thoughts about how Elliot Stabler’s life would have progressed between “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Organized Crime”?

I did, and it actually dovetailed pretty closely to what (the new show’s writers and producers decided), just with a different route in getting there.

Having been on shows such as “Veep,” “True Blood” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” during the last decade, do you look back on your professional years after “Special Victims Unit” with satisfaction?

It’s great to be back (as Stabler), but I never had one bit of regret in the intervening years. With almost every job I took, I thought to myself, “This is why I left ‘SVU.’ I wanted to tell this kind of story, or I wanted to have this kind of experience.” I’ve had a very happy, fun, fulfilling 10 years. I ran around the world and worked on things I wanted to work on, and now, I’m back.

I fondly look back on all the different people I’ve worked with and all the stories told. I got to work on this show called “Happy,” which was just this outlandish, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”-esque thing, but a little darker. We brought a graphic novel to life, and what an experience. And before that, I did “42” – the Jackie Robinson story – and I remember walking around thinking, “This is something important and meaningful.”

That really meant so much to me.

And as for doing a Superman movie (“Man of Steel”), I’d never been in the belly of the beast of a quarter-billiondollar movie before. And there I was, going, “Oh, so this is how it’s done. This is what it takes.” I’ve walked through it all very satisfied.