‘Law & Order: SVU’: How Ice-T Reacted When Told He Wasn’t Bonding With the Cast
Law & Order: SVU was a bit of new territory for hip-hop artist Ice-T. When he first met the cast, he noticeably kept a bit of distance. But little did the rapper know he’d be working with his Law & Order for 25 seasons now.
Ice-T failed to hang out with his ‘Law & Order’ co-stars at first
Ice-T couldn’t have known Law & Order was going to last as long as it has when he was first cast. The actor has always shared that he was originally only supposed to be on the show for four episodes.
“Here it is, we’re starting the 22nd season. I can’t really explain it, man,” Ice-T said not too long ago on Straight Up Steve Austin.
But Ice-T doesn’t mind the show’s longevity. Apart from simply enjoying his job, the show’s cast and crew helped create a work environment Ice-T couldn’t wait to be a part of. He’s grown close with his co-stars, but it wasn’t a bond that formed overnight. The rapper-turned actor admitted that he was a bit distant from his team at first.
“Here’s a funny story,” Ice-T said. “So when I first got on the show I was with Richard Belzer. And I was there for about three months, and they were like, ‘Well, Ice, you’re not bonding with the group.’ Meaning, I guess they didn’t think I was gonna go out to lunch with them and all that. I was just saying my lines.”
Ice-T made it known to his cast that he wasn’t doing Law & Order to make friends.
“I said, ‘I used to rob banks. I don’t need to like you guys. I just need to know that you know how to drive, you know how to control the room, you know how to go in the safe, you know how to listen to the radio. Guess what? After we rob some banks, we’ll be the best f***ing friends in the world.’ And we’ve been robbing the bank for 22 years,” he said.
Ice-T opened up about what he thought about his ‘Law & Order’ co-workers
Ice-T learned a lot about his co-workers over the years they’ve been working together. In an interview with Nerds of Color, he revealed what Mariska Hargitay, Chris Meloni, and Dann Florek were really like outside of work. According to Ice-T, their authetnic personalities differed quite a bit from their Law & Order counterparts.
“Mariska is fun to work with, she’s crazy, she’s much more funny than people think,” Ice-T said. “I just said Dann Florek was on the show and people are like, ‘He’s so mean.’ I’m like, ‘Dann was the funniest person in real life.’ So it’s more about people’s real-life personality than their character because you don’t really live with the character like, I live with Chris Meloni as Chris Meloni and he’s fun.”
Perhaps out of the cast, Meloni might’ve been closest to his more serious counterpart Elliot Stabler.
“Chris is dead serious but he’s fun,” Ice-T said. “We act with the characters but we live with the real people and that’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to do the show so long is because it’s such a nice work environment, and that’s the answer. Everybody’s cool, everybody’s happy to be here. It’s such a well-oiled machine that it’s not hard, they know what they’re doing. Honestly, you can act and step away from it, and when you see it on tv you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m acting my ass off!’”
Ice-T taught 1 of his longtime ‘Law & Order’ co-stars an important lesson
Ice-T managed to give a little advice to his Law & Order co-star Hargitay. Speaking to People, he noticed that Hargitay was perhaps too selfless to a fault. Ice-T taught her how to take care of herself a bit more by saying the word no.
“Mariska’s a very giving person and it can make you sick worrying about other people and not taking care of yourself,” he said. “I believe that a lot of times people need to use that word ‘no.’ We keep each other sane.”
