Mariska Hargitay Reflects On How Her 25-Year-old Friendship With Christopher Meloni Changed Her Life

Say whatever you want to say, all Mariska Hargitay knows is that she and Christopher Meloni will be partners for life. These two have grown attached to each other over the course of 25 years that they’ve changed each other’s life.

In her latest interview, Hargitay revealed how she and Meloni both vied for their “Law and Order” characters t o develop a remarkable onscreen chemistry. Can we press pause and just go back to how they met for a moment?

Mariska Hargitay – Recalls Moment She Met Christopher Meloni And How Their Friendship Kickstarted

Making friends isn’t always as easy as walking into a room and meeting someone you’re comfortable to be around, but for Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni it was.

Speaking to PEOPLE on their latest cover issue, the “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” actress talked about her friendship with Meloni and what it means to her with the passage of time.

“We met and the rest is history,” Hargitay said. “It’s iconic. [He’s] somebody who’s changed my life so much, somebody I love.”

She then went on to recall their first meeting, where she famously thought Meloni was actor John Slattery, but that was not the only memorable thing that happened when they first met. “[Chris] was telling me a story as we walked into the network executive screen test, and he finished his story,” she recalled, adding that he always had “cajones.”

“It was just like that from the minute one,” she said. “It was just off and running.”
This chemistry luckily transferred to their onscreen characters, Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson, and it’s something that gives them both great joy.

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“I was like, ‘If they match me with him, this is my role.’ And he said the same thing. He goes, ‘I want her.’ And then he and I got it,” she recalled, citing Meloni’s “energy, confidence, power,” and “the way he looked.”

She continued, “He was the guy. I just knew he was the guy from reading the script. He was New York, this dark horse, but funny, light. I’m so grateful that those magical stars collided.”

In 2011, Meloni departed the series leaving Hargitay’s character to rise through the ranks from detective all the way to captain of the SVU.

After years of absence, Meloni returned to helm a spinoff show “Organized Crime,” and happily both shows occasionally crossover.

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