There arguably is not another partnership in the history of television with actors as invested in their characters as the one between Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay.
Their investment is evident in the thought and time they put into answers about their famous characters, Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson, and the time they take to craft what scenes should look like for their characters.
They have leveled up this time around, as Meloni wrote a “Law & Order: Organized Crime” episode in which Hargitay guest stars.
Hargitay talked to TODAY.com last fall about Meloni’s “amazing” writing, saying, “It was, you know, daring. It was risk-taking. It was moving. It was out of the box, the way he thinks. It was so fresh and so intimate.”
She added it was “a joy to say his words” and work with him on the episode.
When Meloni hears these words from his close friend read back to him ahead of his April 14 appearance on TODAY, he says, “She’s one of the sweetest people to walk on two feet.”
He pauses before continuing, “All those words really did touch me and are very appreciated.”
“Listen, nobody really understands our relationship the way we do,” Hargitay told TODAY.com, which is a sentiment echoed by Meloni while reflecting on writing his “OC” episode, which is the second one of Season Five dropping on Peacock April 17.
(Peacock is part of our parent company, NBCUniversal.)
“I intentionally wrote this because when she and I are together, I inevitably rewrite it, and not out of — you know, just simply because I don’t think there’s anyone alive that knows the relationship as intimately and as well as I do,” he explains of their bond, which began when Benson and Stabler’s partnership was introduced on “SVU” at the turn of the century.
