Christopher Meloni spent 12 seasons on Law & Order: SVU before leaving the show in 2011. Now he's returning to the franchise, starring in Law & Order: Organized Crime. Originally broadcast April 2019.
This is FRESH AIR. Actor Christopher Meloni spent 12 seasons playing Detective Elliot Stabler on the TV series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" before leaving the show in 2011, but he's back. Last night NBC premiered the latest series of the franchise "Law & Order: Organized Crime." The first episode was a crossover event with "Law & Order: SVU" in which Meloni teamed up with his old partner, Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, who's now a captain. We thought we'd commemorate the reunion by listening to some of my 2019 interview with Meloni. Meloni's also known for playing a sociopathic inmate in the prison drama "Oz," for his work on the series "Homicide" and for his starring role in the sci-fi series "Happy!"
DAVIES: You spent - what? - 12 seasons there. And you worked as Detective Elliot Stabler working on special victims crimes with Mariska Hargitay, playing - she played your partner. Were you guys together the whole time you were there?
MELONI: Oh, boy. You know, all the actors who screen-tested were great. But - and this is one of the rare moments when I walked in with Mariska. First of all, we were walking down the hall, and I was telling her joke, telling her a story that was a funny story. And we walked into the room with all the suits and, you know, all the decision-makers. And I said, hold on guys; let me just finish this story. And from that - and - the hutzpah - I thought about it afterwards. But that was the idea. You guys will hold on 'cause we got control of the room. We're in here, and we got control of everything. We're going to control this scene and our characters.
And it was pretty obvious. Even though I hadn't seen what the others had done, I just - I walked out of that room going, wow, that was it.DAVIES: Well, I wanted to play a clip here. And in this scene, you are, as Detective Stabler, interrogating a child rapist who's been eluding you for years. He's played by Matthew Modine. And the scene begins with you, as Detective Stabler, leaning right into the suspect's face.
MELONI: (As Detective Elliot Stabler) I don't need a Ph.D. need to know what kind of person you are. You're a loser. What? You had a tough childhood? That makes you special? That makes you a victim? You're nothing. You contribute nothing. The reason your life sucks is because you've done nothing.
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