‘Law & Order SVU’: Ice-T Thought Dick Wolf Was a Dangerous Person When They First Met
Law & Order creator Dick Wolf welcomed Ice-T with open arms to his hit spinoff SVU. But upon meeting the executive, even gangster rapper Ice-T was taken aback by Wolf’s presence.
Ice-T once revealed his first impressions of ‘Law & Order’ creator Dick Wolf
Ice-T initially wanted to have little to do with television when he was first recruited for the series. He first got his start working with series creator Dick Wolf on the series New York Undercover. But doing television took some convincing, as Ice-T felt he was becoming too big of a movie star for the small-screen.
“I had just come off of New Jack City in film, and didn’t need TV,” Ice-T told Variety.
His stint in New York Undercover would eventually lead him to work with Wolf much longer in SVU.
Ice-T already had great respect for Wolf when they first met. But the rapper admitted that Wolf had a bit of an imposing presence.
“A dangerous person,” he once told Vice regarding his first impression of Dick Wolf. “Wolves and d***s are dangerous. The man matches up to his name. When you meet him, he’s a big guy. He looks like he’d sit at the head of a table at a mob meeting or something. He’s very serious.”
At the same time, Ice-T felt very fortunate to collaborate with the television mogul.
“Thank god for Dick Wolf,” Ice-T said. “His checks clear, I don’t have nothin’ to say bad about that guy. In this business, if you have one powerful executive that likes you, he can basically help your life. Dick Wolf has bought me a lot of cars, paid for a lot of vacations… I ain’t mad at the dude.”
Why playing a cop and a gangster was the same thing for Ice-T
Portraying a police officer probably wasn’t something a younger Ice-T thought he’d be doing. Before his Law & Order days, Ice-T was primarily known for being one of the originators of gangster rap. Ice-T himself was aware of how it might look playing a police officer after years building up his reputation as a gangster rapper. Because of that, he was concerned doing such a role would’ve done more harm than good to his career.
“I was scared — I thought, like I said, it was career suicide,” Ice-T said in an interview with Drink Champs. “But then I got all my people saying, ‘Man this is a chance.’ There’s no studying, you just act. Acting is make-believe … just act.”
Over time, Ice-T found similarities between his Law & Order and gangster rap persona. Although Ice-T’s rough upbringing was real, he embellished his background in his music for the sake of entertainment. This meant playing a cop in Law & Order wasn’t too far off from doing what he was already used to.
“Playing a cop and playing a gangsta is the exact same acting,” Ice-T said. “We both got a gun, we both got an attitude, we both want answers or there will be a consequence.”
Dick Wolf gave Ice-T great advice on playing a cop in ‘Law & Order’
It helped that Ice-T received valuable pointers from Wolf himself on how to portray law enforcement. Wolf automatically assumed that Ice-T had certain reservations about police officers as a whole that he had to overcome for the show’s sake.
“When Dick Wolf put me on the show, he said, ‘Ice, you don’t like the cops, do you?’ I said, ‘Not all of ‘em. I ain’t got problems. Some of ‘em are cool.’ He said, ‘You admit we need ‘em.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, play the cop we need.’ So that’s what you’re really seeing. It’s kinda like, if I was a cop, that’s how I’d act,” Ice-T said.
The fact that Ice-T’s character was pursuing truly depraved criminals also made slipping into his cop persona a smoother transition.
“The thing about being on SVU is we’re going after child molesters and rapists. So I’m not bustin’ anybody in the gray area. I’m bustin’ real scum. They don’t even like them in prison. So if I gotta play a cop, lemme be an SVU detective,” Ice-T said.
