LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Stephanie March and Linus Roache Tease Their Characters’ Tension

While the bulk of the LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT cast is returning for tonight’s season premiere, there is no doubt the feel of the first hour is different.

Visually, the show looks a bit different, which if you’re a long-time fan — which I have no shame admitting I am — could potentially take you out of the moment briefly. But these are still many of the characters we have known and loved for well over a decade, and despite the loss of Elliot, they are still working as a cohesive unit…for the most part.

However, to help fans be more comfortable with some of the well-reported casting changes, the series is bringing back a few familiar faces: Stephanie March (Alex Cabot) and Linus Roache (who is reprising his role of LAW & ORDER’s Michael Cutter). The duo appear in tonight’s season premiere and to say things don’t go so smoothly between them is an understatement.

March and Roache recently participated in a conference call with reporters, and I asked them to tease the tension between their characters…

“Yes, but there’s also a lot of respect,” Roache said. “I mean, I’m really looking forward to working more with Steph. You know we’ve only just done one episode together but I’m really looking forward to doing more together but I really like the fact that suddenly I find myself on the other side of the desk — telling someone who’s very passionate to do the right thing that maybe they shouldn’t do it but actually wanting them to do it.

“So I find myself standing where Jack McCoy was standing before a little bit and that was very interesting,” he continued. “And I’m really looking forward to taking the dynamic further because, you know, I really love working with Stephanie so it’s going to be fun to continue.”

And yes, March feels the same way about Roache.

“It’s very mutual and I should tell you something about Linus,” she told me. “He knows his lines so well that he doesn’t even bring the pages to rehearsal. That’s how professional Linus is. And working with Linus has been so much fun and it really is nice to revisit a familiar character…working in a new capacity because you get to texture and layer a role that you’ve been working on for a long time with more authority, more passion, more politics. It’s a real world application of what happens as people rise in the professional ranks and I really enjoy it. It makes a character that I have been working on for a long time — it adds a new dimension and I enjoy it.”

I enjoyed it, too. As for the Elliot aspect of the hour? I’ll have more to say after the show airs on the east coast, so make sure to come back to Give Me My Remote later tonight!

Will you be watching the LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT premiere tonight at 10 PM on NBC?

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