Mariska Hargitay is about to host the Emmys, but the television job that made her famous is not one she is preparing to give up.
The 62-year-old actor is currently filming Season 28 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she has played Olivia Benson since the series premiered in 1999. Asked directly about her future in an August Variety interview, Hargitay’s answer was uncomplicated “Do I want to quit now? No.”
Hargitay once worried that spending so much of her career as Benson was preventing audiences from seeing other parts of her, but directing, documentary filmmaking and Broadway eventually changed the equation without requiring her to walk away from SVU.
There is another piece of unfinished business hanging around the series, too. Hargitay has confirmed that she and Christopher Meloni actually filmed a Benson-Stabler kiss that viewers never saw, and she now says she cannot imagine reaching a 30th season without him appearing again.
She Once Thought She Had to Leave to Prove She Could Do More
Mariska Hargitay Got Brutally Honest About Whether She Wants to Leave ‘SVU’ https://t.co/F7X0QMywo4
— Good Housekeeping (@goodhousemag) September 13, 2026
Around Season 25, Hargitay told former ER costar Julianna Margulies that she thought she needed to leave SVU before the role completely defined her. “I’ve got to leave the show too. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-trick pony,” Hargitay recalled telling Margulies. Her friend’s answer was blunt, “Sweetheart, that ship’s sailed.”
Hargitay said she loved the series but felt frustrated that her comedy background and other creative interests were going unused. People around her repeatedly suggested that she would have to leave in order to do comedy, host a talk show or pursue different kinds of work.
Instead, she started doing those things around Benson. Hargitay made and directed the documentary My Mom Jayne while SVU was in production, made her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing during her hiatus and is set to host the 78th Emmy Awards on Sept. 14. Her documentary has already won two Creative Arts Emmys this month.
“I wasn’t ready to leave, because I loved it,” she told Variety. “And then I got to do all this other stuff, and that’s why I don’t think about leaving right now.”
The Benson-Stabler Kiss Really Was Filmed
One of the stranger pieces of Hargitay’s long run surfaced this year when she confirmed that Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler got closer on camera than viewers ever saw. Season 24’s “Blood Out” aired a scene in which Stabler tells Benson that he cares about her and leans toward her before she pulls back.
Hargitay later confirmed that she and Meloni also filmed an alternate version in which the moment became an actual kiss. “We just felt like, after all these years, there was just so much between us that it was a moment that happened,” Hargitay told PEOPLE. “But Wolf didn’t think so, so he cut it.”
She said both actors believed the more intimate version had been earned by the characters’ history, but Wolf and the editing team ultimately chose the near-kiss that aired. “There was a moment,” Hargitay added of the abandoned take.
Hargitay Still Expects Stabler Back Before Season 30
Meloni’s place in the franchise changed considerably this year when Law & Order: Organized Crime was canceled after five seasons. He had returned as Elliot Stabler in 2021 after leaving SVU in 2011. Variety reported the cancellation in April.
“I can’t imagine that I would be doing SVU till season 30 and that he wouldn’t be back,” she told PEOPLE in May. “That’s all I can say.” Season 28 showrunner Michele Fazekas has also said she would like to bring Stabler back when there is a meaningful reason to do so. PEOPLE reports that neither NBC nor the series has confirmed a Meloni appearance for the coming season.
The two actors have remained close away from the show. They were photographed together at the ACE Eddie Awards in February, and Hargitay has publicly supported Meloni since Organized Crime ended.
The Next Season Will Also Contain SVU’s 600th Episode
Hargitay said in May that the show still feels “great and fun and challenging” and that she remains “very much” invested in it. Season 27 had already given the series a significant creative change with Michele Fazekas becoming its first female showrunner.
Hargitay praised Fazekas for bringing new energy and more humor to Benson, saying that the shift helped keep the work fresh after nearly three decades.
The next season will also contain SVU’s 600th episode. Fazekas has teased a major return for that milestone but has not identified the character.
Wolf has discussed reaching Season 30 as a goal, but that is not the same thing as NBC granting a three-season renewal. What is confirmed is Season 28, which premieres Oct. 8 on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock.
