Mariska Hargitay says she wants to She was supposed to help the lost child during which the actress apparently mistook her for a real police officer Filming the 25th season of her hit NBC series Last month.
This is in photos taken by paparazzi Law & Order: Special Victims Unit The star was filming with her co-star Ice-T when she was approached by a little girl who had been separated from her mother and needed help finding her. The case of mistaken identity is understandable considering Hargitay, 60, is wearing a police badge as part of Olivia Benson’s outfit.
“Mariska was filming with Ice-T and was interrupted by a little girl entering the scene. She went straight towards Mariska,” an eyewitness told ET at the time. The eyewitness added that Hargitay paused filming after the little girl approached her and was happy to help reunite her with her mother.
Speaking to ET’s Rachel Smith on Thursday at Variety’s “Power of Women” event presented by Lifetime in New York, Hargitay said she didn’t know if her costume made the girl think she was a public servant, but she did , that she and the lost child “were one.” “We wanted to connect the moment we did.”
“This little angel girl was in need and we connected and I could see that. So I did what any mother on the planet would do,” she tells ET.
Although Hargitay hasn’t had any contact with the reunited mother-daughter duo since then, she gushes that she’s happy with the way she put things behind her. “I got to hug her mom and her, and it was beautiful.”
The two-time Emmy winner was honored at the Power of Women event for her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. Hargitay was introduced by her close friend Glenn Close before taking the stage herself at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she gave a powerful speech about her commitment to continue listening and fighting back to survivors.
“I’m very emotional, that’s it [a] “A really beautiful moment,” Hargitay tells ET of the day’s celebration. “You know, you think about these giants, what the people in this business have done and what they’ve worked through and how hard they’ve worked to get where they are and just the megawatt talent that’s in the room today – it is exciting, inspiring and intimidating. That is much.”
Hargitay portrayed Law & Order: Special Victims UnitOlivia Benson has been a passionate advocate for changing the narrative around sexual assault since the series premiered in 1999.
In 2004, The actress founded the Joyful Heart Foundationan organization whose mission is “to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, to support the healing of survivors, and to end this violence forever.”
The foundation has launched numerous programs, including the Complete the backlog initiative The priority is to eliminate the massive backlog of untested rape kits in police departments.
Hargitay says she will continue to fight for the stories of survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse to be told because “things like this happen all the time in the world.”
“Men are still committing these crimes and sexual assault is still an epidemic in our country…this must stop and end,” she reiterates. “We need to end this construct that has existed for thousands of years, and we need to change the way we talk about these issues: the actual words we use, the grammar we use to talk about sexual assault. This is the way we do it and this here today, given the power of women who can help bring about these changes, [is a] very exciting day.
She adds: “I think male and patriarchal impunity must end. It will take time, it will be messy, it will be cumbersome, but it is not impossible and we are changing.”
RELATED CONTENT: