Mariska Hargitay

TV Series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gePLJlPvy9E

This past season Olivia Benson became the victim, assaulted and kidnapped — tied up and thrown in a trunk — by a psychotic rapist with deceptively jaunty looks. The entire season was so grueling that at its end, the “Law & Order” team opted to take an earlier hiatus than originally scheduled, in order to give everyone — particularly Hargitay — a break.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, hands down, acting-wise,” she said.

As a viewer, it stood out from years of seeing Det. Benson with her gun slung on her hip, staring down at some perp with a determined snarl. The scenes of her tossed in a trunk with a gag around her mouth, or as a terrified woman tied to a bedpost and entirely at the mercy of a violent criminal, were nothing short of mind-bending.

Law & Order: SVU

Hargitay, who also directed an episode this past season, said she reveled in the challenge. “I love that it happened to me,” she said. “Violence happens to anybody. I wanted to show how horrible it is. There’s an archaic belief system about sexual violence — blame it on what she’s wearing, she was drunk, he was a nice guy, she’s a slut. A lot of things.

MS: ?What was the most difficult scene you ever had to shoot? How did you prepare for it?

MH: There were two, and both involved me facing off with my kidnapper, William Lewis. In “Surrender Benson” summoning the fear and rage to attack Lewis with a pipe after escaping my handcuffs was draining and challenging, but in the end, very rewarding.