NBCMariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson plays several different roles for many different people. She's the boss of the Special Victims Unit, she's mom to Noah, girlfriend to Tucker (yeah, get used to it), and hero to all (including viewers) on Law & Order: SVU.
She's taken her licks and gotten back up time after time, so season 17, which Hargitay called a "huge," year for Benson, is no different.
"For me it's been a balancing act. Balancing being the boss, balancing being reintegrated after the ‘Townhouse Incident' and balancing motherhood and priorities—keeping all the balls in the air is what's so hard. Having Noah and feeling like I have so many kids," she told E! News on set of the SVU season 17 finale.
Benson may have one child of her own, but she also has her work kids in the form of her elite squad of detectives. "You're like the den mother I feel like," she said. The character has been "pulled in every direction" this year while battling her "own inner demons." "And having to have this front because [Benson] can't let on to the squad or anybody about what I think ‘Townhouse Incident' did internally. So, can't catch a break," she said.
In "Townhouse Incident," gunmen took Hargitay's Benson hostage after she went to check on a family her babysitter also works for. Naturally, it brought back memories of the terror wrought by William Lewis (Pablo Schreiber). Did the tragic experiences of season 17 undo all the work Benson's done in therapy with Dr. Lindstrom (Bill Irwin)?
"I think that the Lewis stuff that happened informed her responses here because I felt that she was different. I hope she was different. And with any therapy it's always growth in general, right? It's two steps forward, one step back. Two steps forward, three steps back," Hargitay said. "That's what I love about her. This character is indeed flawed and trying to figure it out, making mistakes and shifting from being solely focused on the victim to balancing the business of it, and being a boss and a leader…Again, she's pulled in every direction and trying to figure out what to do."
The challenge of it all is what keeps Hargitay interested, and 17 seasons in that is a feat.
"I think what Warren [Leight] and I both value—and Julie [Martin]—is evolution of character. I feel like Olivia Benson just isn't the same as she was before. This year I think she's almost learned what she can handle. I think that, all this—the last couple of years of growing into lieutenant and doing that—now I feel like she is, she can handle that…I feel like [Benson has] finally grown into that sort of leader, that's what I feel like this year is about, is not being afraid of her leadership and her power and accepting who she is, where she is and what you have to do to be a leader and how it's literally lonely at the time. I feel like it's really lonely and she's been lonely and alone. It's been elements of her and them."
But it's not always lonely at the top: Enter Tucker (Robert John Burke).
"And then enter Tucker which has been such a game-changer for me because not only is he as powerful—she's such a powerful character—to have somebody that energetically matches her has been incredible. But also have somebody that understands because he's even more complicated and a leader more than her," she said. "He's so masculine and so strong and so powerful that she can [exhale] because he's that, so [Benson] gets to be a different color."
With Tuckson, as fans call the relationship between the two characters, viewers have seen a new side of Benson. One that's worried some, especially a scene in which Hargitay's character pours herself more wine and another where Tucker comments on her drinking.
"I think it was a moment, not even a lot. I think it was a moment and that was about, again, external manifestation of what was going on inside, the balancing, but I think it was a moment," she said. "It was a moment."
Viewers will recalls Benson's mother was an alcoholic and died after drunkenly falling down a flight of stairs. "It was a moment and that is why she will never. That's not her issue, it was a moment. I really think it was about—it was a moment, we'll leave it at that. Nothing to worry about," she said.
To say SVU, which his going into season 18, has had a huge impact on Hargitay is an understatement and something she never saw coming when she strapped on the gun and the badge for the first time.
"No, never in a million years and I'll tell you, that's truly why I'm still here. My heart—I just was actually emailing with Dick [Wolf] today—because my heart is so in it and I am so committed, not only because of the show, but I feel so grateful to be an actor and doing every single day what I love to do. So I feel grateful in that, but also, obviously, how the show has changed lives and how it's inspired me to start Joyful Heart. And each year the way I see the society truly changing," she said. "I really think that things are shifting and awareness is shifting...That sort of reinvests me and reinvigorates me.
"It's a very powerful show that is dealing with such important and real, current issues that are potentially life-saving. So I don't know if it gets better than that," she said with a laugh. "Right? Now the Foundation and the show have such a beautiful marriage. They completely support each other and it's been so important telling these stories and then continuing the work in real life with our advocacy and changing laws, changing societal attitudes and hopefully cleaning up the rape kit backlog."
Law & Order: SVU airs Wednesdays, 9 p.m. on NBC. The season finale airs Wednesday, May 25 with new episodes returning this fall in the same time slot.
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