Je viens de trouver cette interview avec Mariska Hargitay sur le cite de Zap2it.com
Hargitay Takes 'SVU' Personally
(Monday, November 29 03:00 PM)
By Rick Porter
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) On Tuesday (Nov. 30), NBC will broadcast the 125th episode of "Law & Order: SVU." And for the 125th time, Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni will play the show's lead detectives, Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler.
Given that the show is a spinoff of "Law & Order," which is as famous for its cast turnover as for its longevity, the stability of "SVU's" regulars is pretty remarkable. Dann Florek (Capt. Don Cragen) and Richard Belzer (Detective John Munch) have also been with the show from the start, while regulars Ice-T and B.D. Wong have been around since season two.
Hargitay has a theory as to why that is. "The mothership ['Law & Order'] is much more 'Just the facts, ma'am' than our show is. There's just not as much to play," she says.
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"We're dealing with much more personal matters, personal issues," Hargitay says of "SVU," which deals primarily with sex-based crimes like rape and child molestation. "There's much more of, I think, the human condition and the complexity of it."
Because the cases Benson and Stabler deal with are often so intimate, "SVU" is a little freer than its "Law & Order" counterparts with doling out personal information about its characters. We know, for instance, that Benson was conceived as the result of a rape. Viewers also learned in the Nov. 23 episode that Stabler's wife and children, who provide a balance to the grisly work he does, have moved out.
"There's just no way to do the show without having that personal stuff," Hargitay says. "Even ['L&O' creator Dick Wolf], who did fight it at the beginning, doesn't fight it anymore. [Executive producer] Neal Baer tells him, 'This is what we're doing,' and he loves it."
Viewers seem to be enjoying it as well. So far this season, "SVU" is the only one of the three "Law & Order" shows to increase its audience over last season (although both the original and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" are facing tougher competition this season). It draws about 13.7 million viewers per week, up 1.3 million from last year.
Hargitay is particularly proud of the current batch of episodes, starting with last week's "Doubt," a he said-she said sexual assault case that caused a rift between Benson and Stabler. She says that even after playing Benson for five-plus years, she's still capable of being surprised by the character's strength.
"In the beginning, I think Elliot was a lot stronger than Olivia. ... It's been interesting to see the tables turn and me be the rock, me be the one that has to calm Elliot down and get him refocused. The characters go through different strengths and weaknesses -- different things set them off to where they can't hack it. ... In these next few episodes, you see him lose it a couple times, and Olivia has to step in."
That she can feel so excited about a string of shows 125 episodes into "SVU's" life, Hargitay says, is a good indicator for her that she'll keep playing Benson for a while.
"I feel like the writers have hit their stride, and they're giving us great stuff, peppering in these personal moments that are very informing to the characters and the story," she says. "The integrity of the procedural is never compromised, yet the audience feels closer to the characters because ever week, they get to know them better."
