‘Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Often Gets Celebrity Requests To Play “A Dead Body”

Of all the fictional victims Mariska Hargitay has encountered over the years, they almost included a few recognizable faces.

After 25 years of starring as Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the Golden Globe winner recently revealed the “weird” request she frequently gets from celebrities who watch the NBC procedural.

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“All the famous people, you know what they want?” she said on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “To be a dead body. It’s so weird.”

Hargitay recalled a “big supermodel” requesting to cameo as a dead body, noting that the unnamed model was “one of the greats.”

“I found out that she loved my show,” recounted Hargitay. “So I said, ‘Oh my gosh,’ I went to the writers, I said, ‘Can she be on the show?’ And she said she wanted to be a dead body, but then I said, ‘No, no, we have this great part for you.’ I call her back, I said, ‘Listen we got it. We’re gonna get you on the show.’ She goes, ‘Oh no, I wanna be a dead body.'”

Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson
Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

She added, “It happens all the time. Why do all these famous people not want lines?”

Meyers even admitted he once “wanted to be a dead body” on the show, and although he was offered a part, he turned it down, explaining, “I don’t want lines, I just wanna be a dead person in the park.”

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Hargitay has played Detective Olivia Benson since SVU‘s premiere in 1999, investigating crimes of sexual nature as a member of the NYPD, eventually becoming captain.

Law & Order: SVU continues its record-breaking streak as TV’s longest-running primetime live-action series after it was renewed for Season 26 in March.

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