Mariska Hargitay Didn’t Like Chris Meloni Saying She Had ‘Great Energy’
Law & Order SVU star Chris Meloni always had high praise for his longtime onscreen partner Mariska Hargitay. But although he meant well, there was one remark Meloni made about Hargitay that she didn’t take too kindly to. Fortunately, Meloni was able to make up for his mistake years later.
Mariska Hargitay once called out Chris Meloni for ‘great energy’ comment
Hargitay and Meloni knew they were a perfect match ever since they first crossed paths. Meloni was already a recognizable face at the time thanks to his work on the HBO series Oz. Meanwhile, Hargitay’s career was just starting to gain some momentum. After their long journeys as actors, the two met at the right place and time for SVU. By then, they instinctively knew it was the beginning of a beautiful partnership.
“I walked in, saw him, and I went, ‘That guy. That’s the guy.’ It went deep, very fast. We both knew that it was something big,” Hargitay once said in an interview with People. “I won’t say that I fully understood it, but I knew that meeting him was important and life-changing. My father, my husband, [Law & Order creator] Dick Wolf and Chris are the four pillar men in my life. And that happened early.”
Over the years, it seemed Hargitay’s and Meloni’s feelings about each other were spot on. So when Hargitay was up for a Glamour Woman of the Year award in 2021, Meloni was more suited than anyone to honor his co-star. But before gifting the Joyful Heart founder her award, he joked that he needed to make amends for a mistake he made in the past.
“I have been trusted with one task tonight, introduce someone who needs no introduction, who I’ve been working with for 13 years, and been friends with for 22,” Meloni said according to Glamour. “Because tonight, I am here to right a wrong that has festered for far too long.”
Meloni then went on to recap an exchange he had with Hargitay that stuck with the veteran star ever since.
“Twenty years ago an interviewer asked me about Mariska, and I said, ‘She has great energy.’ She read the article, she brought it to me in hair and makeup, she goes, ‘What is this?’ I go, ‘What do you mean? You have great energy.’ She goes, ‘You don’t say someone has great energy, because what that means is you have nothing nice to say about them, you have nothing original or truthful, you might as well say I have a great personality,'” she said.
But this time during the ceremony, Meloni came prepared.
“And to be truthful, have you ever met Mariska? She’s got great energy, great personality. So tonight, I say this: Radiant. Charming. Funny. Generous. Elegant. Bawdy. Honest. Appreciative. Inclusive. Direct. Vivacious. That’s my favorite word; it comes from the Latin, to live. Which is what she does with great passion, every day, with everyone that she engages, be they friends, family, strangers, or commitments,” he said.
Chris Meloni recently revealed his favorite ‘SVU’ scene with Mariska Hargitay
Not too long ago, Meloni confided there was one scene that he shared with SVU co-star Hargitay that left a deep impression with him. The episode was one of many that showed how close Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson had become. So much so the two characters began putting each other’s wellbeing over their duties as officers.
“My favorite Law & Order: Special Victims Unit scene featuring myself and Mariska Hargitay was when Lou Diamond Phillips had a gun to my head, and Stabler told Benson to take the shot,” Meloni told Us Weekly.
It wasn’t just a touching moment for Benson and Stabler, but for Hargitay and Meloni as well.
“We were bound to each other in that moment as people and characters. And I think Mariska was eight months pregnant at the time, so it’s a moment I find particularly special,” he said.
