This year, Mariska Hargitay and the rest of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit team are celebrating 25 years since the show’s premiere. For 25 years, the show has given fans endless entertainment, showed what a fearless woman like Olivia Benson can do when they’re in charge, and raised awareness for the show’s main storylines about abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence.
Speaking to Selena Gomez in a new interview for Interview Magazine, Hargitay looked back at the SVU legacy, and how she’s managed to balance her home life throughout it all.
“I learned more about sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse than I ever had thought about,” Hargitay admitted. “And quite frankly, before I started the show, I didn’t know a lot about it.”
Only after being in the show for a year did Hargitay learn all the harrowing statistics for sexual assault in the United States. “I learned that one in three women will be assaulted, and one in six men,” she said. “That’s what started the foundation for me.” In 2004, Hargitay launched the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization that aims to “transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever.”
But while her philanthropic efforts have been incredible to witness, viewers of the show can only imagine how difficult it must be for Hargitay to act out such cruel stories over the years. “Is it hard, though, to tackle these issues when you’re shooting, and then go home and continue?” Gomez asked Hargitay. “I wonder how easy it is to turn that off, dealing with hard subjects and then going home and just being with your family?”
As a reminder, Hargitay and her husband Peter Hermann, who have been married since 2004, share three kids; August, 17, Amaya, 12, and Andrew, 11.
According to Hargitay, letting go of those on-set stories was much harder than she ever predicted. “That’s been a process,” she admitted. “When I started the show, I wasn’t aware of how deeply it would go into me. My husband Peter is always like, anytime I go anywhere, my first question is, ‘What’s the crime rate here?’ So it’s on the brain.”
“There’s been times when I didn’t know how to protect myself, and I think I was definitely a victim of secondary trauma from being inundated with these stories and knowing that they were true,” Hargitay continued. “Those were the parts that I didn’t know how to metabolize, just because of the sheer volume of it.”
“That’s also why I started Joyful Heart [Foundation], so I would feel like, well, at least I’m doing something about it,” she explained.
But, despite the experience of reliving these stories, Hargitay is beyond proud of the show, especially when it comes to the community it’s created. “And one of the most gratifying parts of this job is how much community has come from it,” she said. “Women have learned so much about DNA and going to the hospital and reporting and what not to do and what to do after you’re assaulted. It has truly aided in so many people’s justice, not to mention their healing. So it’s been quite a journey.” Quite a journey indeed!
If you or someone you know has been the victim of emotional or physical violence, you can get help. To speak with someone who is trained to help with these situations, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.SAFE (7233) or chat online at www.thehotline.org/
Before you go, click here to see celebrities who have opened up about surviving sexual assault.
