Mariska Hargitay - 'Don't get mad. Do something about it'

THE ‘SVU’ STAR SHARES HOW A TV ROLE LED TO THE REAL-WORLD FIGHT OF HER LIFE

- Kate Coyne

One of the few certainties in Hollywood is that absolutely nothing, ever, is a sure thing. Back in 1999, the odds of success for a procedural drama series with a decidedly grim premise – following the NYPD detectives who investigate sex crimes – were not exactly promising. But when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (now known more familiarly as SVU) premiered on NBC, it was an instant hit – and it has gone on to become the longest-running drama series in TV history, with 21 seasons and counting. The actress at its centre, Mariska Hargitay, became not only a star but also a passionate activist. As SVU grew in popularity, Hargitay received more and more letters from real-life survivors of sexual assault, opening up to her about what they had endured. “So many of them said, ‘I’ve never told anyone this before,’” Hargitay, 56, recalls. She trained as a rape crisis counsellor and in 2004 started her own non-profit organisation, the Joyful Heart Foundation, to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 2010, Joyful Heart moved beyond its initial goal of providing therapeutic resources to tackle a problem that outraged Hargitay: the backlog of rape kits that sits untested in practically every state, wasting evidence that could put predators behind bars (see sidebar).

Being cast in SVU has been life-changing for the star in other ways: Over two decades, the daughter of ’50s stars Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay has become a married mum of three (sons August, 13, and Andrew, 8, and daughter Amaya, 8) with her husband, Younger actor Peter Hermann, 52. As the smell of dinner (roasted chicken with sweet potatoes) wafted through her New York City home and her kids debated who would pick that night’s family movie, Hargitay looked back on the journey that changed her and what she’s learnt along the way.