Law and Order: SVU, Kelli Giddish

Amanda Rollins exited "SVU" in Season 24, Episode 9: "And a Trauma in a Pear Tree." Kelli Giddish talks about Ice-T, Mariska Hargitay, more.

I mean, she gets shot in the very first episode of the season because of the [“Organized Crime” and “Law and Order”] crossover event, which was a three-hour event with so many characters to be invested in so you need a little tragedy in there. As exciting as the job is, being a mom and being a wife and being a teacher sounds really, really exciting to her at that point. What other show can a woman go and be totally bloated and pregnant as a cop and the showrunners say “we’ll work with it,” you know? In the midst of all these horrible storylines, she was really asking, “Why do people do such bad things to each other?” And for her to go into an academic setting and actually be able to explore that I think is really cool. Just to get to go and actually imagine her playing that part of herself out and satisfying that itch in her brain, to really delve into the psychology. And I was like, “OK, I got this” because I’ve got Richard Belzer and everybody looking at me: the new girl. I was on a soap opera, but it wasn’t like in my wheelhouse and in my body to know how to do it. So I would be at the whiteboard explaining the whole case and everyone’s names and the times and the dates and this and that. And when I’m off my mark, I hear it going outta my pocket.” [Laughs.] So that was a quick crash course in acting by Ice-T. I remember moving into a sixth floor walkup in Brooklyn on a Sunday, and then I had to report on set to Staten Island for “Criminal Intent” in a bikini to like strut around this boat. Giddish: Was I on “Criminal Intent” or “SVU” first? In response to an Instagram post from Giddish, showrunner David Graziano wrote: “You might take a moment to entertain the idea that things are more complex than they appear in a world of emojis and tweets.