Mariska Hargitay Reveals Reason She Almost Left Law & Order: SVU 

There was a time when Mariska Hargitay considered hanging up Olivia Benson’s iconic blazer for good. 

Indeed, the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star revealed she nearly walked away from the series to pursue other opportunities in entertainment. 

“The comedy thing was painful to me,” she told Variety in a recent interview, “because I felt like I was only exercising one part of myself. People would say, ‘You need to get off that show and do comedy. You need to get off that show and have a talk show.’”

But even when she told her pal Julianna Margulies that she was considering moving on from the series, which first premiered in 1999, she knew in her heart of hearts she “wasn’t ready to leave.”

“Because I loved it,” she explained. “And then I got to do all this other stuff, and that’s why I don’t think about leaving right now.” 

As the 62-year-old learned with time, sticking with the NBC show—which also stars Christopher Meloni, Dann Florek, Richard Belzer and Ice-T—doesn’t mean she has to sacrifice other creative ventures.