…Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and one of the show’s producers, Neal Baer.
NBC kindly set up the teleconference, but it started a few minutes late, and it ended earlier than it might have when Mariska was called to the set; as a result, we got to ask each of them a question, but we never got back up to bat. Here’s what we were able to ask:
Bullz-Eye: Mariska, you made your post-pregnancy return to “SVU” with a bang, with Benson being drawn out of her undercover work early, but had there ever been any talk that the pregnancy might’ve been worked into the series?
Mariska Hargitay: Um…no, actually! (Laughs) There wasn’t. I didn’t know what they were going to do, but the show being what it is and the writing being what it is, I had utter trust that they would come up with an amazing sort of answer to it. And it was great. It was actually really fun and really challenging to cover it up, and I think that they handled it really well and really creatively, so it was exciting.
Neal Baer: While Mariska was ready and is a fantastic mother, with the cutest kids you can imagine, Olivia, we felt, wasn’t ready to be a mother yet, and so…just one little anecdote is that we had a show on this year called “Scheherazade,” with the brilliant Brian Dennehy. So Mariska and Brian Dennehy were doing the show, it was on at the beginning of January, and it actually had been shot last year, and we had to hold it because we didn’t have a slot for it until this season. And so, I remember in the dailies that Mariska was doing a scene where she was bent down or on her knees, she was finding something at a tombstone…and she couldn’t get up. Right, Mariska?
MH: (Laughs) Oh, yes! Neal, you’re sharing all the family secrets…?
NB: That’s right! (Laughs)
MH: No, I had to waddle myself…I was, like, “One…two…and we’re up!” I had to sort of rock into getting up. It was hilarious.
NB: But that’s the great thing about film: you can cut around that. The odd thing for me about that episode is that Mariska is always wearing a coat, even inside…
MH: (Laughs)
NB: …but we just figured it was in the winter. It was very cold.
BE: And just a quick follow-up: in Benson’s absence, Dani Beck (played by Connie Nielsen) was serving as Stabler’s partner. Do you think her character will ever return to “SVU”?
NB: No. I can answer that, because I think that the whole intent was to bring on someone who had never done Special Victims and show that, even though they have compassion and a great ability to empathize, it’s not for everyone, and it was the perfect chance for us to show a really great cop but why our cops are different. So I don’t think that Dani Beck will ever return. She’s back in Warrants.
Bullz-Eye: Hi, Mr. Shatner. Given “Show Me the Money,” “Boston Legal,” and the number of other projects you’ve got keeping you busy, was there ever been any point after you’d finished the “Trek” films where you considered following Leonard Nimoy’s lead and winding down from acting?
