Mariska Hargitay Reveals If She Wants to Quit 'Law & Order: SVU,' Talks Christopher Meloni Chemistry | Just Jared - Celebrity News and Gossip

Mariska Hargitay is opening up about her life and career.

The 62-year-old Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress spoke out in a new cover story for Variety, out now.

During the discussion, Mariska spoke about becoming the 2026 Emmy Awards host, her Knicks fandom, her love for her mother and tracing her legacy on My Mom Jayne, her long-running NBC series alongside Christopher Meloni, and much more.

See highlights from the conversation inside…

On being asked to host the Emmys:

“At first I thought, This is ridiculously thankless — a difficult job that everyone gets ripped apart for. Why? Why would I do that?’”

On needing a change of pace after filming Law & Order: SVU by hosting the Emmy Awards:

“Chelsea Piers on a soundstage — that’s my life. When I go to the Emmys, I get to see everyone — and shows that I get starstruck by. I couldn’t turn [The Pitt] off. It was so money. I want to hang out with them.”

On her future plans:

“Do I want to quit now? No. Why? I made a movie while shooting; I did a play for six weeks on hiatus. I’m hosting the Emmys. Next summer, if I don’t make another movie, I’ll probably do another play. And I love it! After I made my film, it was unleashed. Something got unleashed, or broken open, or freed.”

On watching Game 4 of the NBA championship, The Knicks vs The Spurs:

“I’m not interested in sitting in a box! I need to be there. I need this for them! You’re standing in a miracle. The world was changed. New York was changed. The bar of what’s possible has changed. You can be down 29 points and still win — this is what’s in the consciousness of young athletes now.”

On her mindset growing up:

“My dad was an athlete. I grew up with ‘Mariska, it takes that much more. That’s what being a champion is.’ I have that every day: ‘How can I be better?’”

On her appreciation for television and how it made her agree to hosting:

“It was just the biggest wrench in the works. And then I thought about why I love television. Television, in my opinion, is extraordinarily healing.” . . . “Our show made people talk about sexual assault. Our show changed the culture. And that is the power of television — it creates community, which creates healing. Which is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I don’t want to talk about that. I love inspiring people. I love bringing people together. I love television.”

On being approached by a fan who said that SVU had saved her life:

“I started crying, and I remember, I started shaking. It just started spilling over. I could only hold so much. I had to do a lot of therapy to shore myself up from that.”

On the cinematic, rainy climax for the latest season finale:

“I was like, ‘Bring it! Finish strong.’ I felt so happy, satisfied, sated, proud. That’s how you finish strong.”

On talking to Julianna Margulies about “redefining her identity”:

“I said, ‘I’ve got to leave the show too. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-trick pony.’ And she goes, ‘Sweetheart, that ship’s sailed.’”

On her chemistry with on-screen partner Christopher Meloni:

“The key of it was humor. If you can communicate through humor, then you have a very tight bond. You experiment with how far you can go. Sometimes it can be very cutting. Sometimes it can be very close to the bone of truth. And if each person can withstand the shots — we may play rough with each other, but if we can communicate comfortably, we can figure out the other stuff.”

On leading the show after Meloni’s departure:

“I wasn’t as vocal. It was a question for everybody: Can she hold the show? Can she lead the show? Nobody knew. It was one of those moments of stepping up. And sometimes you don’t step up until there’s a space.”

On directing an episode with a fantasy-style outer space scene:

“SVU, we don’t shoot on the moon. We shoot in New York City. We had to do this green screen, and it was the most exciting thing, seeing somebody manifest what was in my head. It made me feel confident in — what if? What if I wasn’t afraid? What do I want to do?”

On representing her mother Jayne Mansfield’s legacy in “My Mom Jayne”:

“I didn’t like the sex symbol aspect of her personality. She was so much more. I really struggled with the whole… the measurements of it all. I couldn’t understand how the studio system was back then. It’s just too much for a little girl — you don’t even know how to process.” . . . “I know that she was a victim of domestic violence. It’s no accident that I play somebody who fights for abused women. I wanted a normal mom, and I kept seeing these images of her running around in a bikini and heels, and that was very stressful for me.”

On her first time in the community of documentarians:

“The documentary world is a specific group, I’ll just say. It’s so much more [than the story of an SVU star]. They had projected on it and thought it was a celebrity doc. Yeah, it’s not.”

On the live, interactive experience of Every Brilliant Thing:

“I haven’t had that kind of terror for a long time. Learning the lines was — insane. It was such a gift to be a blank canvas.”

On trying to serve all her interests:

“The comedy thing was painful to me, 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.’”

Christopher Meloni, who plays Elliot in the Law & Order universe, recently chimed in on what he thinks makes the relationship so compelling and the ideal ending he has in mind for Benson and Stabler.

Posted To:Christopher Meloni Emmy Awards Every Brilliant Thing Jayne Mansfield Julianna Margulies Law & Order Law & Order: SVU Mariska Hargitay My Mom Jayne New York Knicks Television The Pitt Variety