Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay Is ‘Ecstatic' Over Kelli Giddish's Full-Time Return to the Show
Talk about squad goals.
Law & Order: SVU star and executive producer Mariska Hargitay is 'ecstatic' about Kelli Giddish's full-time return to the procedural, she recently told our sister site Deadline.
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Giddish's just-announced reinstatement as series regular on the NBC series 'is so purely joyful to me,' Hargitay added. 'She is a formidable actress and an incredibly creative partner and has been such a joy and huge part of the fabric of SVU. I love her, and I love acting with her and co-creating with her, and it feels like home with her. So I am ecstatic about her return.'
Giddish left SVU as a series regular in December 2022 but has been a recurring guest star since then. Her most recent appearance took place in Episode 20 of the just-wrapped Season 26, when Rollins — now a sergeant working with the New York Police Department's Intelligence Unit — was brought in to assist SVU on a kidnapping case.
Law & Order: SVU Season 27: Everything We Know So Far
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Hargitay has made no secret of the fact that she fought Giddish's ouster in 2022 and that she wanted to bring her back in more than a recurring capacity.
'Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart,' Hargitay said in a May 2024 interview with our sister site Variety. 'It's a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show… but I didn't have enough there.'
She added: 'I don't like not being listened to, especially when I'm right… That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.'
Hargitay spoke with Deadline at the Cannes Film Festival, where she was promoting My Mom Jayne, a documentary about Hargitay's mother/film star Jayne Mansfield. The film marks Hargitay's cinematic directorial debut; she has previously helmed nine SVU episodes.
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