LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT Boss on a ‘Complicated’ Case, Mariska Hargitay Stepping Back Behind the Camera

On the Thursday, January 16 episode of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, a survivor uses a billboard to make her accusations against an athlete public.

“When a survivor walks in the door and says something happen to me, our guys believe them,” SVU executive producer Warren Leight notes. “I think we’re all keenly aware that that’s not the norm in police precincts across America. So what happens to somebody who, in this case, works at a strip club and gets assaulted in the club walks into the local police precinct and says, ‘This happened to me.’ Especially if it’s a local precinct, where half the guys, when they’re off duty, hang out at the strip club. How seriously are they going to take a stripper’s complaint?”

With the case stalled, “by the time our guys hear of the assault, the survivor’s completely alienated—she has no faith in law enforcement at all,” Leight says. “[She] is basically going vigilante. We already gave Benson sort of tough nut to crack with the Ariel Winter episode, a character who was complicated and self-sabotaging. This woman is, in some ways, much more hardened than that character was and doesn’t trust our guys at all. So that’s I think the crux of that episode: How do you bond with somebody who doesn’t trust you in any way?”

The episode also marks series star Mariska Hargitay’s seventh time behind the camera directing. “She’s all in,” Leight gushes. “She’s very visual. She’s very committed, and you don’t have to explain all the rules of the show. [When she’s behind the camera] we can just talk story and visual approach. I think it’s her most cinematic episode; beautiful visuals all of the way through.”

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC

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