Olivia Benson’s is the perfect feminist story, she defines Mariska Hargitay, the actress who has been wearing the police uniform to play her for 25 years. In January, NBC began airing season 25 of Law and Order SVUwhich features stories often based on true events, featuring the NYPD division that prosecutes sex crimes.
In the program Today, from the same channel, had Mariska watch a snippet from the first episode, from 1999, in which she shows her badge to a woman and introduces herself: “Detective Olivia Benson, New York Police Department.” “What a small voice I had there, it grew in volume during this cycle and that speaks to the evolution of the character,” the actress is surprised. From detective to captain sergeant, Olivia is the longest-running dramatic character in the history of American television.
Mariska, who turned 60 this week, says she feels better than ever, much more present, after also finding her voice.
“Wonder Woman” was the headline of the magazine People a note they gave her, in which they gave her the space to write an essay publicly telling, for the first time, that a friend raped her in her youth. Mariska now declares herself a survivor, like the victims she helps in her series.
Mariska with Juan José Campanella, who has already directed her in several episodes of the series. EFE photo“I knew from the day they showed me the first script that this was a very special show. Prosecuting these types of crimes on a weekly basis on TV, being able to give victims a voice and hope was uncommon.” She recalls that the show made her feel like a feminist hero.
A late success
Daughter of actors, her mother is playmate Jayne Mansfield, success came to her only after she was 40. “My first Emmy, my great love, my first child …” she lists. They were in season three when an actor, Peter Hermann, met them to play a guest defense attorney. In the Dick Wolf series they hunt down criminals and then take them to court to pay for their crimes. The perfect catharsis.
“I saw him and I knew he was the man I was going to marry,” she confessed to Drew Barrymore. In 2006, when she was 42, her son August was born and she won an Emmy for dramatic actress for the composition of Olivia, one of her 8 nominations. In 2011 she would adopt her other two children, Amaya and Andrew. Two years later she posed with her entire family while receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The series began in 1999 and is the longest-running police program.“A man raped me when I was 30, not for sexual reasons, but for dominance and control. He was a friend and suddenly he wasn’t. I froze and fell from my body, a response to trauma when there is no possible escape. “I did what I had to do to survive.” Fans of the series have seen her on countless occasions compassionately tell victims, “I’m so sorry,” “It’s not your fault,” and “The experience is horrible, but it doesn’t define you.”
A friend helped her put a name to what had happened to her. Many years ago, before recognizing herself as a victim, Mariska Hargitay created a foundation, Joyful Heart, to help survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Her compassion creates a lot of empathy with the audience, it is an integral part of the success of the program.
Mariska Hargitay confessed to being raped by a friend.The Argentine Juan José Campanellawho directed her many times on that series, says that although on screen Olivia is very serious, in real life Mariska is outgoing and very funny.
She looked very funny at the last Emmy Awards, reunited with actor Christopher Meloni (detective Elliot Stabler), with whom she formed a duo during the first decade of the series. “I feel better than ever,” she says, who admits to constantly texting her friend Jamie Lee Curtis, who at 65 is teaching her how to relax and enjoy this new phase of her life.
Source: Clarin
