Cady McClain Dishes on Returning to LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and DAYS OF OUR LIVES

February 15, 2023 by Marisa Roffman

McClain on the set of SVU. Credit: Cady McClain

Cady McClain is pulling double-duty on television this week: In addition to returning to the role of Jennifer on Peacock’s DAYS OF OUR LIVES, she’s also guest-starring on NBC’s LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT on Thursday, February 16.

In SVU’s “Dutch Tears,” “I play Patty, the wife of a corrections officer [Captain Pete Ryan], who’s played by Mark Borkowski,” McClain previews to Give Me My Remote. “Fin and Bruno come to our house. And we think that they’re seeking my husband’s help. Then we find out they’re actually interrogating him.”

This marks the second time McClain has appeared on the NBC drama (she played Alice McCain in 2004’s “Outcry”), but marked her first real experience working with Ice-T, whose character is at the forefront in the hour.

“I’m excited for him—it really centers on an arrest that his character, Fin, made 23 years ago,” McClain shares. “Fin ends up taking the lead [in] helping a man named Dutch [played by MAYANS M.C. star Richard Cabral] find the man who raped him in prison. So it’s an interesting story. I’m excited to see how it all comes out.”

McClain with co-star Mark Borkowski on the SVU set. Credit: Cady McClain.

Working opposite Ice-T and Kevin Kane (who plays Bruno) was also a joy. “They’re awesome—super nice,” McClain acknowledges. “Lots of fun, really kind, very generous people, generous actors. I was over the moon; I had the time of my life. I had so much fun.”

“I did get to sort of connect with Ice in a very interesting way for the character, and with Mark Borkowski, who you might know from BOARDWALK EMPIRE, as well,” she continues. “We have an interesting dynamic going on there as soon as we find out they’re not there to ask for help…things get very tense.”

It was a different kind of dynamic than her last turn on the show, when McClain played the pregnant mom of a young missing girl, Tandi (played by Amanda Seyfried), who claimed she was raped by a trio of students. But it quickly became clear to the squad there was more to Tandi’s story than she was willing to share.

“The first time I was on the show, I mostly worked with Mariska [Hargitay], who could not have been more awesome,” McClain recalls. “Her reputation as being a fabulous human being is well-deserved. And we just had a really good time. [And] I played a pregnant woman—I was really into doing sensory stuff. So I was holding my [fake] belly.”

“I remember, in particular, the crew was like, ‘Are you pregnant?'” she continues with a laugh. “‘No, I’m acting, I’m trying to be a pregnant lady!’ So I remember a lot about trying to get the waddle right. That was really fun.”

“Outcry” also marked one of Seyfried’s first major roles. “She was so lovely—and she was really freaked out,” McClain says. “She was really, really early in her career and it was just sweet. Michael O’Keefe was in that episode playing my husband. And as a lot of older actors like to do, we just liked to be kind to the younger actors as they [navigated the early roles].”

Though it’s been almost two decades between her guest spots, McClain marvels at how much the cast and crew still care about putting out the best product possible.

“I did something that was kind of hard and scary [in ‘Dutch Tears’],” she previews, acknowledging it was a “combination of physical and emotional” hardship. “And it was so exciting when it kind of came off. I was high-fiving with the crew when it was done. It’s just so exciting that the show has been on for so long, and yet, the crew and the cast still get really excited when things go well. Everybody’s thrilled when something exciting happens. And that’s just a great thing to be a part of; I feel really blessed.”

Photo by Leslie Hassler

Meanwhile, on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, McClain’s Jennifer returned to discover her family is in-fighting: Jen’s stepdaughter, Gwen (Emily O’Brien), blackmailed Jack (Matthew Ashford), Jennifer’s off-on husband, to get control of the family newspaper. (Jennifer hit Gwen with her car and then bolted, while under the influence of drugs, which Gwen is now holding over everyone.)

“This is just a little hop, skip, and a jump to come in to solve a problem with the paper that Jack and Jennifer set up so long ago,” McClain acknowledges. “It’s just a little short arc, [but] it’s nice when they call me back to help solve a problem.”

Though the duo agreed to give Gwen the paper, Jack and Jennifer’s fight with his daughter isn’t over. “That’s a bit of a tussle, I must say,” McClain previews. “It gets a little aggressive. Jennifer, after coming out of rehab, has a little more bite to her bark than she used to in the past, which was nice to play. Coming to terms with taking all those pills to keep herself calm has maybe let her release a little bit more of her mama bear than she usually would. She usually would be the person who is trying to calm everybody down and carry the emotional weight of things. So it’s good; I like it when Gwen and Jennifer get to get into it…There’s a little toe-to-toe going on there.”

For McClain, a soap vet whose prior credits include ALL MY CHILDREN, AS THE WORLD TURNS, and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, returning to DOOL (where she’s played Jennifer off-on since 2020) is a “comfort.”

“I have to say that the soap world, in a funny way—and fans say this to me, as well, ‘Oh, I watched the show with my mom and my grandma’—it’s like visiting my grandma, to some degree,” McClain acknowledges. “‘Oh, there’s this sofa, everything is just cozy and familiar.’ There’s a comfort to that, especially after doing it for so many years. It’s still there, the structure is still there, and the families are still there. Some of the players are still there. It’s very comforting in that way.”

“And when there’s a storyline that’s really hard, or really challenging to do, then I just feel lucky, because I’m still being asked back and come in,” she continues. “I like to use a baseball metaphor: you come in as a pinch hitter, because they know that you’ll hit the ball out of the park. And I like that. I like having that reputation and being trusted with difficult storylines. I’m very proud of that.”

McClain is also keeping busy as the artistic director of the New York-based Axial Theatre. “I love it when people come to our readings and to our productions,” she says. “We have something coming up in April. It’s really fun to make theatre here in New York. There’s so many talented people, so many wonderful writers. I’m blessed to get that opportunity to help feature some of those people and put them into roles…if anyone wants to come check that out, that’d be amazing.”

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC

DAYS OF OUR LIVES, Daily, Peacock

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Filed under Days of Our Lives, SVU

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Cady McClain Dishes on Returning to LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and DAYS OF OUR LIVES

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