“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay revealed the huge gamble she took at her auditions for the gritty police procedural — and the fact that the whole scenario unfolded directly in front of series creator Dick Wolf.
During an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast with host Alex Cooper, the 61-year-old actress confessed that she marched into her first interview and instructed Wolf to send another actress home: “This is my part.”
Hargitay explained that, at the time, she hadn’t really grasped just how big Wolf was in the television industry — but she knew the risk was worth it after she read the script for the first time.
“So I read it and I said, and I never had this experience, ‘I’ve never loved anything more. This is my show. This is the most progressive show I’ve ever seen. I love it. I need it. I have to do the show,’” she said, and with that in mind, she went for her second callback audition in front of Wolf — who had already earned a slew of nominations and one Emmy for the original “Law & Order” series between 1992 and 1998.
“And then I had the audition and then I got a call back and on the second callback, Dick Wolf was there,” she said. “I see another girl in the waiting room and I’m like, ‘Oh no, this is not happening.’ So I walked in there and I said, ‘Listen to me.’ I didn’t know that Dick Wolf was like, king of television. And I go, ‘I don’t know who that is out there, but let me tell you something. This is my part.'”
Wolf, she said, seemed more amused than anything else. “He’s like, ‘Oh, is it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. So you tell her to go home.'”
Once the audition was over, Wolf gave Hargitay his notes on her performance. “I’m like, ‘Those are good notes. Thank you.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, are they, are they good notes?'”
Hargitay landed the role of Olivia Benson on the long-running drama, which explores sex crimes in Manhattan — but she admitted that no one actually sent the other actress home that day, mainly because she wasn’t there to read for the same part.
“Then it turns out that the beautiful, talented actress that was in the waiting room was there for another part. And she was in the pilot, and she’s a fantastic actor, actress. I was like, ‘Get her out of here.’ And of course, you know, we’re friends now for life,” Hargitay said, although she did not reveal the name of the actress in question.