Yahoo Lifestyle Maura Tierney recalls wild plot of“ Law & Order ”episode she appeared on 33 years ago: ‘Kind of a convoluted story’
Tierney now stars as Lt. Jessica Brady on the franchise's anchor series, but it isn't her first appearance.
Maura Tierney may be playing a member of law enforcement for the first time in her career on the new season of Law & Order, but this isn't the first time she's appeared on the show.
"I can't even, oh my God," Tierney exclaimed as she watched scenes from a 1991 episode she guest starred in during Friday's Today segment. Host Dylan Dreyer asked Tierney, "Do you remember that person?" "I do," she affirmed, continuing, "the story was, my sister was an actress and my mother was a big stage mom, and the mom was pushing the sister to do adult films. So the sister committed suicide and the mom was charged with manslaughter for making the kid do [adult films]."
When the hosts reacted with surprise that Tierney recalled so much of the 33-year-old episode, she explained, "Well, it's because that's kind of a convoluted story."
Scott Gries/NBC
Maura Tierney, Reid Scott, and Mehcad Brooks on 'Law & Order'Tierney joined Law & Order for season 24 in the role of Jessica Brady, the lieutenant hired to replace Camryn Manheim's Lt. Kate Dixon. Manheim exited the Dick Wolf series in 2024 after a three-season run.
In the first episode of season 24, the series was somewhat coy about the in-universe explanation for Dixon's departure. When Brady arrives on a crime scene and introduces herself to detectives Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) and Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks), Shaw asks, "Wait, what happened to Dixon?" Brady flatly replies, "I don't know. What've we got?"
The only direct word from Dixon comes via text message. Riley reads out to his partner mid-episode, "Patrick (Dixon's son) got a great job at a school in Miami, and Mom is tagging along. Didn’t want to make a big to do about. Tears and all that. Come visit."
Related: Sam Waterston leaving Law & Order after 400 episodes, Tony Goldwyn joining as new D.A.
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"She's not very charming," Tierney said of her character. "I usually play warmer people, which is really fun. She doesn't really care if anyone likes her."
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly in Sept., Tierney further characterized Brady as "tough, and she’s very, very, very smart... Her gut instinct is very strong, she leans on it, and she expects people to listen to her when she talks."
She also previewed Thursday's special crossover episode with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Tierney confirmed that Brady and Capt. Olivia Benson (SVU star Mariska Hargitay) are most certainly "not besties," but recalled, "It was funny to me because I read the script and I was like, 'Oh, I get to call her Liv,' which was very exciting and funny... We don’t really get along, our characters. They get into a disagreement about how a certain legal matter should be handled, so it was fun to get into it with her a little bit."
Scott Gries/NBC
Maura Tierney on 'Law & Order'Tierney is a veteran of several titanic primetime series, from E.R., on which she played Dr. Abby Lockhart for nearly 200 episodes, The Good Wife, on which she guest starred as DNC power player Maddie Hayward, and The Affair, on which she starred as Helen Butler for all five seasons.
Law & Order airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, on NBC, with next-day streaming availability on Peacock.
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