Juliana Aidén Martinez opened up about being the newest addition to Law & Order: SVU.
The Griselda actress joined the cast of the long-running show for its recently launched 26th season. She’s playing a character named Kate Silva, a detective who works alongside Mariska Hargitay‘s Olivia Benson.
In a recent interview, Juliana reflected on her experience on set and what it’s been like to work with Mariska. She also offered a hint about how long her character would be around.
Keep reading to find out more…
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Juliana explained that she had to find a way to “honor the material and the foundation” of the hit TV series. However, she still needed to “bring something new” with her character.
By the sounds of it, Mariska played a key role in her finding her way, with the actress saying that she vowed to mentor her and “show [her] the ropes.”
For Juliana, that was an amazing opportunity considering how she feels about her costar.
“There’s kind of an innate admiration for Mariska and what she’s done for the show. She operates so much as a captain and No. 1 in the cast,” she said. “That really bleeds into that kind of relationship in which, ‘You can teach me so much, and I want to honor what you have, and then bring something new to it.’ And so there’s this neat, kind of mentee-mentorship quality.”
Will Kate Silva stick around for a while? Juliana hinted that it seemed to be the plan.
“They were very intentional about my casting. I think they wanted to make sure they got someone that could fit in with the cast, and who could be with the cast on a long-term basis and really contribute to the squad,” she told the outlet. “So, even with the screen test, they hadn’t done that since, I believe they told me, like Kelli Giddish. They hadn’t done a screen test for someone in the cast. So, they were very intentional about, ‘We want someone to be a part of the squad.’ And I really felt that from day one from them.”
Juliana looked just like a part of the group when she was spotted alongside Mariska and Octavio Pisano in New York City earlier this week. Scroll through all the pics in the gallery!
Did you see Mariska‘s very exciting guest star role?
