Past 'Law & Order: SVU' Stars and Cast Members Look Back at Time on Set (Exclusive)

“This truly is -- and this is real -- that even if you came
on for a day, you always felt like you were part of a family. You always felt
like you were a part of it. You didn't feel like the outsider and everybody was
having this party and you were just coming on, saying a few lines and feeling
like you were holding up the walls. You felt completely a part of it.” (MORE: The Impact and Legacy of 'Law & Order: SVU' 400 Episodes Later)

“It was great working on such an iconic show. SVU is a show about really difficult
subject matter.”

“Mariska Hargitay is a very beautiful woman. One thing she
did to me that I'll never forget is, you know those close-ups? On my close-up,
we're talking about something emotional and I cry to get myself there. It's
hard and draining. But then when it flipped to her close-up, she's like, ‘I
need you to give me that exact same performance.’ I'm like, ‘Oh, wow.’ That's a
lot. Right then I just knew that was acting.”

"My daughter, who is now 23, started watching the show
at the beginning. I never really had watched the show until I started doing the
show -- which was the first time in my daughter's eyes that I had accomplished
anything -- but what I really appreciated was what a powerful role model
Mariska has been for our daughter all these years. To have someone that she can
watch every week and is available to her -- she’s an example of strength and compassion
and someone to really aspire to.”

“[Mariska Hargitay] gave me tips [on acting], but I’m a slow
learner. It took me a while, but everyone was very patient and very graceful. I
could’ve recited the preamble to the Constitution more quickly than I could
learn my few lines standing before a camera.”

“SVU was my first
big job. It was the job that made me -- I had to join SAG to actually do the
job after I booked it. So, that meant a lot to me. I actually got paid double
because it was a holiday, and that episode re-aired so many times that it
financed a major part of my transition. Thank you, Law & Order!”

“It's your right of passage as a New York actor to be on
multiple episodes of Law & Order.
I'm very glad I was able to do that before something like Modern Family hit.”

“It was a bit of an intimating set to walk on to because
they’ve been there a long time and they’re so iconic. It was a very dramatic
thing for me to do, but I loved it. It’s nice to be challenged like that as an
actor.”

“I just kept joking that I was finally a real actor because
I got the role on the show. I really loved being on that set. It was just
amazing walking into the courtroom and being like, ‘Oh wow. Here it is. I’m
going to be on the stand!’ It was awesome.”

“I played a very unsavory character, a guy who sort of
booked travel and stuff for sex tourists in the far East, and I got to work
with Chris Meloni, who I knew a little bit before. He kind of roughed me up. It
was pretty funny. We had a good laugh.”

“There is a comforting familiarity to the show because it
has been on the air for so long. The talent on the show -- I’m not referring to
myself, but certainly Mariska, Raul and the other talented actors -- is so
watchable and so great.”

“I remember Mariska being incredibly welcoming and a
wonderful scene partner. She has to do that with so many different people. I
don't know how long she's been doing the show. But I think, at least from what
I remember, was that she was still discovering things all the time and doing
everything that makes watching her so wonderful.”

“After I had done Million
Dollar Baby, I was offered many, many roles of mean people. On SVU, I was a woman who kept children in
cages. I remember that everybody on there was fabulous. And guess what? I love
that show! I watch that show.”

“It felt like a drive-by shooting to me. They do so many
different locations on that -- the episode I worked on, anyway. It was like,
‘Boom, we’ve got it! Boom, we’ve got it!’”

“You know what's so funny? Until that point, my claim to
fame was that I had never even been brought in for an audition for an episode
of Law & Order. I was the only
New York actor who hadn't even auditioned for a dead body. So, they killed my
claim to fame with that role when they offered me the episode.”

“One of my highlights was having Isabelle Huppert shoot me.
That was just delicious. She's my favorite French actress. I've been a big fan
of hers for decades. When she came on the set, I was beside myself. And then
the fact that she shot me, it was like, ‘Oh, this is heaven.’”

“Mariska’s just such a warm, kind, sensitive person -- she's
sensitive to what's going on around her and she’s an incredible multitasker. I
mean, I have absolutely no desire to direct because it looks really hard. It's
really hard to keep your head in all those different places and she never lost
her cool. She was incredibly supportive and wanted us to do our best. She was
not going to let me do a bad job, which I really appreciated.”

“Mariska is a force of nature. She is somebody that I really
admire. She’s got great acting chops. She’s got a heart of gold. And, you know,
working with her was really wonderful because she’s a very generous actor and
we had a lot of fun.”

“It was an amazing classroom. I thank Dick Wolf and the entire
franchise of Law & Order because
it was my classroom as far as work in front of the camera.”

“My favorite memory is sparring in court with Viola Davis
and finding out she's as kind and gracious as she is talented.”

“I wish it the best and I say a hearty congratulations to
its 400th.” 

“For a lot of actors, that was their one opportunity to get
on-camera time and get paid a really good wage. So we all owed a lot to Dick
Wolf … I still get my little checks in the mail.” 

“I used to joke [that] in the 53 episodes I did, I think my
bare, ungloved hands were shown maybe less than five times. I was always
sifting through evidence.”

"We had a scene -- they cut it, thank God! -- where
it's revealed that the manager is having an affair with her younger client.
[Jeremy Jordan and I] had to go in for a kiss, and they cut before we kiss. And
the two of us would go, 'Gahhhhh!' It was so nauseating to both of us."

“It’s funny, because I was doing [the Off-Broadway play ‘Dog
Sees God’]. It had a really amazing cast of young actors -- it was me, Kelli Garner,
Ian Somerhalder, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Logan Marshall-Green [and] Keith Nobbs,
and we had all been on one of the Law
& Order shows. When we were writing our bios, we wanted to all end our
bios with our Law & Order
credits. We didn’t end up doing it, but it was one of those things we had a
laugh about.”

“I’m doing a play with Dann Florek and we’re talking about the
show. He said it’s funny to watch young actors who’ve come through there and
then to see where they are at now. The first time I was young and still learning
things. I was wide-eyed and had no idea what was going on.”

“Mariska’s very strong, she’s very clear, she’s very giving.
It’s like working with Kerry Washington. You’re not working with someone who’s
trying to hog the camera or letting her ego take over. That whole crew is
wonderful to work with.”

“The integrity on that franchise is so intact from show to
show. The cast and the series regulars are cream of the crop. So, when you are
stepping in to do an episode or three, you know you're stepping into something
that really works. You just have to do your job and know you're contributing to
something that is as good as it gets.”

“I just remember shooting this huge scene on the street with
Mariska, where she's getting in my face and I'm yelling back at her and it was
literally a block from my house. I was so mortified that I had to be an
'actor,' like, don't shit where you eat. I was horrified.”

“The best part about playing a judge is that I can literally
be in my pajamas! No, that's not it. The best part is that I have the best seat
in the house. They play to me, so the camera moves around and watches the scene
but they're all actually playing to me.”

“[The success of the show] starts at the top with the vision
of Dick Wolf, with the execution by artists like Mariska Hargitay and Kelli
Giddish and all the cast. There’s just a tremendous professionalism on set, by
virtue of their many years. They're so cohesive. It's a harmonious place to
work. It’s what work should be.”

“You know you’re an actor in New York when you’re on SVU.”

“Being on the show with Mariska was great. It was fun and
reminded me of being on ER and being
on a set that’s so happy and with people who are so familiar with working
together so well. It felt like going back in time.”

"What was great about Chester Lake [was] Dick Wolf
wanted a character that was embedded into the beginnings of how New York City
was built and paying homage to the people that did it, which was the Mohawk
Nation. So, he wanted a character that not only a New Yorker, but also a piece
of every brick being built. He saw this beauty of how New York was being built
and he was paying homage to that."

“When I’m traveling, if I ever feel homesick, I’ll put on Law & Order because I’m bound to find
someone on the show that I know, which makes me happy. I'm very appreciative of
those shows for as well as they did.”

“It's been exciting to see Mariska really take command and
really be a leader for such a terrific show. She's really carried the emotional
weight of the show for a long time. She's a female warrior in that regard.”

“It’s great to get these master classes from the cast. Now,
I share a common ground with these people who I’ve seen so much on TV.”

“The show gets into sex crimes, which are very difficult to
talk about. Those are topics that are now discussed more in society. The show
really pushed some boundaries in terms of what it took on, which I think is a
very important conversation to focus on and that not enough people have.”

“I used to have an African parrot named Blue, and I told
Chris Meloni about this parrot and he did Blue imitations, making him a
rough-talking guy with a cigar. He would crack me up daily with his Blue
imitations. And now we follow each other on Twitter and I’m always like, ‘Do
Blue!’”

“I know my first Law
& Order was in 1992, and I had just moved to New York from Chicago. It
really showed casting directors what I was capable of.”

“Mariska is an old friend of mine. She came to New York to
visit me and a couple of friends and we took her to some Broadway shows. And
she was like, ‘God I want to move to New York.’ And she had an audition for SVU while she was there. She was
actually hanging out with us when she got the gig.”

“My mom is a huge Law
& Order fan and she identifies with Olivia so much. She’s strong, a big
personality and, you know, a woman in charge. My mom binges on Law & Order marathons. She's
obsessed with it. So, for her it was like a dream come true that her son was
going to be on.”

“My agent told me, ‘Every great actor got started on Law & Order.’ Idris Elba thanked Law & Order when he accepted his SAG
Award and I hope that’s me thanking Law
& Order someday.”