Popular crime drama SVU, now in its ninth season, shows no sign of slowing down, says David Keeps
KEY POINTS:
After nine years and nearly 200 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni were convinced they'd tangled with the most dastardly of criminals. Their latest guest star, however, is turning scene stealing into a case of grand larceny.
"Robin Williams," Meloni
jokes, bristling with the intensity of his character, detective Elliott Stabler. "He's really pushing my buttons that (bleep)er!"
In Control, the 200th show of the hit series which screens in New Zealand in the coming months, Williams plays Merritt Rook, a slippery character based on a real case about a man who impersonates police officers. "He gets his rocks off commanding people to do very strange lewd and lascivious acts," Meloni explains. "It's a statement about obedience."
Though Williams had never watched SVU before, the character was intriguing: "The idea that he is basically trying to get people to question authority and not just blindly follow was appealing to me," Williams says. "I only found out later that Chris had been [a bisexual psycho killer] on Oz and that scared me."
How on earth does he cope with the seething manliness of Meloni and the incredible hotness of Hargitay? "It's more the seething manliness of Hargitay and the incredible hotness of Meloni," the comedian cracks.
For Hargitay, who plays detective Olivia Benson, the prospect of acting with Academy Award winner Williams was exhilarating. "I think about some of the guest stars we've had and it really is a milestone working with such a genius," she says, catching a breather from an interrogation scene with Meloni and Williams.
"Of course, after five minutes, the novelty wears off and he's my new best friend and we're all kidding around. Then you do a scene and you have the reality check: That's Robin Williams. The man. And he wanted to do our show. That makes me so proud. Look how far we've come."
It's been a long, successful ride for the frank and provocative drama, which is now the most popular vehicle in the Law & Order fleet.
"I think we have the edgiest content on television," says co-star Ice-T, one of the early architects of gangsta rap. "I've always been considered a hardcore person and sometimes I'll read the script and go, god-damn!"
Meanwhile, Stabler is back with his wife and their new baby. "Elliott is going to be dealing with his 17-year-old, who is now a problem child," Meloni says. "He has gone to the dark place with his rage and I think having nearly lost his family, his wife, his new baby, he sees life through different eyes."
Sitting in his dressing room, the 47-year-old has a daughter, 7, and a son, 4, a place in New York and a lake house with a powerboat that his wife drives when he water skis. "My dream is to go kite-boarding in the Dominican Republic," he says.
SVU has pretty much been a dream come true. "For most actors having the financial security to start a family is a fantasy. I remember being on NYPD Blue when they were celebrating their 100th episode and wondering how they got there. And I'm very thankful to play the hero," he adds. "Because I don't think I'm the everyday hero."
Stabler is also grateful to be back in the squad room after the writers' strike. "It's like a marathon," he says of the show. "The gun goes off and you have the end in sight. You don't want a break and it made me wacky."
Make that wackier. This is, after all, coming from a guy who keeps two sock monkeys named Tandem and Tandette in his massage chair and a talking action figure of King Leonidas from the Spartan sword-and-sandals flick 300 on his desk. "I was turned down for the role of the drag queen," Meloni cracks, a comic frown on his face,
"They went with that Brazilian guy and I think I look much better in make-up."
Stabler buried his hurt in work: a Nickelodeon film called Gym Teacher: The Movie, an appearance in the Harold & Kumar sequel, a turn in the romance Nights in Rodanthe and a role in the John Krasinski-directed Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
Oh, and he also directed himself in a bawdy comedy called Dirty Movie. It's not exactly a vanity project: "I wear a cheap toupee, an ill-fitting suit and badly veneered teeth." Meloni reveals.
Meanwhile, his stunning co-star Hargitay
divides much of her time between SVU, her husband Peter Hermann and son August, and her non-profit organisation the Joyful Heart, but she also managed to squeeze in some big screen time recently.
"I flew up to Toronto with Val Kilmer to film a cameo in Mike Myers' new film Love Guru," she reports. "That doesn't suck."
She recalls the first time she met Stabler.
"I had several auditions for the show and we were flown to New York to test for the network. There were three guys and three girls going up for the part. I knew the other guys, but not Chris. They matched us up to read together. I knew it was a done deal.
"We were walking down the hall talking and we get in this room in front of 20 people and he just finishes telling me this story. Any other actor would've stopped and introduced himself. Chris was cucumber cool. He had that thing. That laser energy. He was Elliott."
Executive producer Ted Kotcheff was in the back of that audition room nine years ago. "I said, Mariska and Chris are a slam dunk," he recalls. Fortunately, the network agreed. Even so, Kotcheff wasn't sure it would last through its first season. "The original title was Sex Crimes - that's exactly what the detectives in New York City who handle these cases say when they pick up the phone."
The name was changed and the chemistry between Benson and Stabler has simmered for nine seasons as the show tackled some of society's taboos.
"We deal with rape, sexual assault and child molestation, this flaw in humanity that keeps repeating itself over and over but has to be looked at," Hargitay says. "And our characters help people deal with their feelings about these horrible things."
Benson and Stabler are yin and yang, says Kotcheff. "She is the template for the modern woman, tough and professional with a maternal compassion for the victim. He is the alpha male whose anger allows us to channel our repugnance at the crime."
"It's a show that deals with saving and protecting people in the most intimate and desperate situations. Most real SVU detectives only last two years on the job," says Meloni, who like Hargitay, has often been told by real-life victims that they wish Detective Stabler or Benson had handled their cases.
"I've had men and women come up and tell me they were molested and, `I wish your character had been there'. That is very humbling."
Next season, "Benson and Stabler will be enmeshed in some surprising ways", Neal Baer promises. But in the meantime both stars reflect on what has made SVU a success.
"We're pushing the envelope with the stories we tell and because they deal with real situations you want to call it as you see it and tell these stories with respect and integrity," Hargitay says.
Bring it on, adds Meloni. "I want to go where fear leads me," he says. "That's always a good reason to do something."
LOWDOWN
What: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
When & where: Wednesdays, 8.30pm TV3