On Set Interview: Kelli Giddish and Ice-T Work It in Law & Order SVU
by Brad Balfour
October 28, 2015
After 17 seasons, Law & Order Special Victims Unit has evolved, developed into this fully realized fictional universe with wholly comprehensible characters, realistic story lines ripped from the headlines and more recently, a serialized development process that keeps audiences guessing week to week where this series will go to push the boundaries. On that journey from the beginning has been series star Mariska Hargitay as Sergeant Olivia Benson, who been down the dark dank rabbit hole of sexually based crimes from the start.
Joining her in that journey, nearly from the earliest days has been hardcore rapper turned actor Ice T (birth name, Tracy Lauren Marrow) as Detective Odafin Tutuola, a hardnosed narcotics cop who transferred over the SVU 16 years ago to apply his street-worn knowledge and skills at handling lots of undercover work. He’s been paired with other detectives but most recently he’s had skilled theater actress Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins, who transfers from Atlanta PD to Manhattan SVU in June 201.
For 57 year-old Ice T, working on the 348 episodes he’s already done has not only made him a better actor and person but he’s become a full-fledged production machine with his wife Coco, spinning out unrelated shows like their reality series, Ice Loves Coco; he no hip-hop gangsta cliche.
As for 35 year old Giddish, she’s not only applied years of work in both television and theater to her SVU time (from 2007 onwards) but also incorporates some of her background growing up in Georgia to create a fully realized character who grapples with the traumas of dealing with sexually oriented crime. Actors Giddish and Ice-T work well together off camera almost as well as their fictional counterparts do. That chemistry and camaraderie became qucikly apparent when these two conducted several roundtables recently at the Manhattan production offices. As we sat before they we actually got to conduct them in the actual set, the SVU police station forever seen as the backdrop of the series. And besides being able to share in the anticipation of the birth of a new season, we also shared in tales of both Giddish’s and — in spirit — Coco’s pending children to be. So these interviews session will be memorable in more ways than one.
How does working on a show with such longevity how does it change you?
Ice-T: How does it mold me as a person? It’s the most — how would I say it — [the most] consistent job I’ve ever had. It’s the most normal [job I’ve had]. It’s like having a place you live [in], go to work, [it’s] part of that. You know, for a long time, [after] being a musician and having to travel all over the world, it’s [nice] being able to act in one place. It’s a great thing you know?
I don’t know when I was really young I might not have liked it, it might have been too stagnant for me, but at this time in my life, I don’t mind being able to go home every night to the same place and have a home. As far as doing the job, how has it molded me? I think it’s made me a better actor. Like being able to act every day?
It can’t do anything but help, so I think of being on SVU is like me having gone to the Harvard of acting. Having done over 20 years of almost consistently acting — [it’s been the best schooling]. What about you? Are those good answers?
Kelli Giddish: I was going to say just being an actor, it’s not like we have to live or work and move our whole lives to Dallas or Atlanta or Vancouver. We get to live in New York and do a show that doesn’t suck.
Ice-T: This show could be in bum-fuck Egypt too and you’d be forced to live there.
KG: We live in a great city.
The show was filmed in New Jersey though.
Ice-T: But still, New York, New Jersey, you can’t beat this. When you’re not working, you’re in New York. It’s great.
KG: It is great. Because I’ve flown a lot — some of the shows I’ve done were in Dallas and Atlanta respectively and while I loved doing that in my twenties, it’s nice to have one character — it’s not like a film where if you mess up, it’s their perpetuity. It’s like, “Oh God, I had a bad day and that take…”
We get to redeem ourselves or work on ourselves every single day coming to work. And not many people have that opportunity especially in a climate of TV now. Like if it’s not a hit right off the bat, then you’re sunk and you’re done and then it’s over next thing. This is something we can rely on being there, it’s a good thing. And now we have Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire or Chicago MD or whatever it’s called.
Ice-T: It’s Chicago Med. Also it comes easier because every day, because I’m going to be me. I’m going to be the same character. So I can just apply to different scripts this character who Fin is and everybody knows where he stands. It’s not like every show I have to create another character. And in that sense, it’s easy.
I totally believe in conserving your energy because I’ve always said, “Kelli, let’s conserve your energy because in a minute, or any moment, they’re going to write a scene that’s going to make you act your fucking ass off.”
KG: Right.
Ice-T: So until then, you just have to lay back and be a cop until that moment happens. And when you’re doing a show that’s really a 23 hour movie, you can’t just be on it at all times.
Do you ever look back at your earlier episodes?
Ice-T: I was still fucking incredible then. I mean you have to remember, by the time I’ve done Law & Order, I’ve done 50 movies. So I had already been in it, but I just thought to get better and better and better and better.
I think I’m more relaxed now, because what Kelli said, coming from movies, you got 90 minutes to put it out there, so you’re doing some super acting. When you get to this, you’ve just got to learn it; you can’t overdo it.
KG: I’ve always came from doing theater and this is a completely different beast. I never knew I would like it as much as I do.
Ice-T: I was being sarcastic.
KG: But no you weren’t. I can’t even repeat what you said. “In-fucking-credible?”
Ice-T: Mag-nificent.
KG: I just don’t know where the “fuck” went in. “Incr-fucking-edible.” Is that it?
Ice-T: I’m a rapper. Forget it.
KG: But we don’t have to say the same thing night after night like the Broadway stars do. We have to stay the same character but it’s something new every single day. And thank God because as actors we just get so bored. We’re like “Huh? What were you saying five minutes ago?” Like if we’re not moved then we’re not…
Ice-T: And the fun is getting the guest stars. We’re used with acting with each other but then they throw up a new person in, it’s like who’s coming to the party this week? You always get to meet new people and that’s what makes it exciting. Indefinitely.
In the first and second combined episode this season, you guys tackle the Robert Durst story, and transgender issues in the second one. Are there other news stories that you want to see adapted for the series? Obviously, there are a lot of inspiration in the news: the Duggars, and what’s been happening with that; the Ashley Madison thing, both are very hot topics that would be right for you to explain to the public.
KG: They write themselves.
Ice-T: When they first started the show, the name of the show was supposed to be “SVU: Sex Crimes.” Dick Wolf was concerned: “Would there be enough material?” Well, I guess 17 years ago, they figured out that these stories never stop writing themselves. And they become more and more bizarre.
I was just looking at one on TV today about a guy who came home, found his wife in bed with her father, and then her father jumped up and stabbed him. And apparently, the father had been in prison 24 years, and the girl was one when he went, so she had no relationship with her father. And so when she saw her father, they decided to make out. That’s SVU at it’s best. And to him–he’s never seen her, so that’s–whoa. The material’s out there [laughs].
Your character is another strong woman on this show, the second detective on the team, so what it’s been like with Mariska Hargitay — to work with her since it’s really been her from the beginning — and even though it’s an ensemble, pretty much her show from the beginning.
KG: It’s amazing. We were all at her house on Memorial Day weekend, to start the summer an “SVU sleepover.” And she’s gracious as a host, both on set and off, with her time and her actual home.
In that case, we had a great time, we got everybody together. I don’t think there’s a lot of the cast that would do that… And then also to have a nice house in the Hamptons [laughs].
Ice-T: I don’t think we force anything. I just generally dig hanging out with [actor Richard] Belzer’s crazy ass, and you know, [Dan] Florek [Captain Donald Cragen) would always show up and be drunk at the party, and broke everybody, guaranteed shit’s going down.
Just this weekend, Kelli was over at my house for Labor Day. But when it’s forced, when it’s like, “Oh, it’s your cast mates, you’ve got to hang out with them,” that’s corny too. But, I really don’t like you, you know? But here, it’s fun. I was saying that before you came, I was saying that’s what makes this job so easy, it’s because everybody generally understands we need each other, we’re all–it’s a job, you know? It’s not forced on us, either.
Who’s going to host Thanksgiving?
KG: I don’t know, my dad asked me the same thing. I was like, “I don’t want to think about it.”
SVU has to figure out a way so we don’t know that that’s the killer. Is there something that we know as the audience that you don’t and then we wait until you figure it out?
Ice-T: There’s an SVU rule. The SVU rule is whoever is suspect in the first scene is really it. Whoever we go after first, forget it. Just throw them out the way
So that’s the twist? That’s the twist that you have the science down?
Ice-T: Good twist though.
Are you going to be able to take time off?
KG: We’ll see how I feel. I have no idea how I feel. I feel comfortable with my production team, so we’ll see how I feel, and if I want to come to work, I’ll come to work.
Ice-T: The thing about a TV show is they’ll bring somebody in and let them be Sargeant, and then kill them. You know, like, so… It’s not real. You don’t know. Let the chips fall where they may. But like Kelli said, I trust these writers. They have a vested interest in keeping this machine moving, so it’s fun to find out what happens.
Have either of you thought about doing anything else with the show? Like directing?
KG: No. Writing, this is a science, an exact science.
Ice-T: No. I don’t want to, not with this show. Mariska directs and acts, and it’s an unimaginable task. I take my hat off to her because it takes a lot of work to direct this show.
We start a week ahead of each episode, you finish a week afterwards, while you’re simultaneously working, and… Naw. I have other projects, I have a production company and do things outside of this show. I’ve got a talk show we’re doing, and other things we’re doing. This is separate. No, I’m cool with just acting.
But it’s definitely broken actors into becoming writers and directors.
Ice-T: Yeah, [but] there’s a difference between this and a movie. There’s a difference with trying to direct this while you’re on this. I’ll stay in my lane.
And yourself? You have this project — Coco’s pregnancy — to work on.
Ice-T: That’s another project.
KG: Yeah, I’ve got my own project I’m working on [looking at her own swelled belly].
How far are you working until?
KG: I don’t know, we’ll see. I feel great. I’m really lucky to have a good pregnancy.
Incredibly good. Rollins’s journey this year, and last year, and now this next — what can we expect, especially with the baby? You’ve been put through quite the wringer.
KG: I know! Well, now she’s got another challenge. This one is more natural or better, I guess, than a gambling addiction… But, what’s really fun, is getting to see who the father is.
Ice-T: Yeah, you guys are hookin’ up with everybody, it’s kind of scandalous around here.
Your character has really been through the wringer. How do you see her evolution? How do you feel where is she now versus where she first came from?
KG: Well, now she’s not the new girl that has to [get] all the information. That’s Peter [Scanavino’s] job [laughs]. [He plays Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.] But yeah, she’s more mature, you know, she’s found a comfortable place within the squad room, she’s got some kind of footing with Benson, and with her partner, I think she’s got a really strong relationship. So, it’s kind of nice; you don’t have to put all the groundwork into that. You know Ben’s going to have Rollins’s back. You know everything works now.
What about your music? Have you slipped it into the show a few times?
Ice-T: Not on this show. Here’s some inside info. Word on the street is that they might rekindle New York Undercover. No not a leak, you have to be a miniature New York Undercover, that with kids. Why you laughing at it, New York Undercover is like a 25 year old file. Oh I’m sorry, 20 years old. I’m an old man. So they’d have to come in with a young group of detectives, I’ve already pissed myself to be the chief.
And what do you think of Straight Outta Compton?
KG: All of us here were like yeah, “Ice, whaddaya think?”
Ice-T: It was very honest, it was true; the kids played N.W.A like it was really it. He was acting like Easy, kicked out of the park, I felt like I was talking to Cube, all the stuff about Jerry, all the infighting, it was all real. Like the scene where the riot happened, I was like me and Cube were making trespasses but when he cut back, he was writing Friday and I was like, “This shit is really on.” Great movie, it’ll get some Oscar nods.