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Mariska Hargitay Says Celebrities Always Ask Her If They Can Play a Dead Body on ‘Law and Order: SVU’

Mariska Hargitay Says Celebs Keep Asking Her to Play a Dead Body on Law and Order
Mariska Hargitay Sophy Holland/NBC

Mariska Hargitay’s pals just want to play dead.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star revealed that her famous friends constantly ask her if they can cameo on the long-running NBC drama — but only as a dead body.

“All the famous people. You know what they want?” Hargitay, 60, shared on the Wednesday, October 2, episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers. “To be a dead body. It’s so weird.”

“It happens all the time!” the Olivia Benson actress added, joking, “Why don’t these famous people want lines?”

Hargitay’s remarks led to host Seth Meyers admitting that he too would love to be a corpse on SVU.

“I wanted to be a dead body,” Meyers told the actress. “During the 2007-2008 writers’ strike, I met all these Law & Order writers. And I was like, ‘I’d love to do a cameo, but I just want to be a dead body.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, my God, we’d love to have you on the show,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, but I’m a dead person.’”

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The comedian continued, “My agent was like, ‘There’s a part for you.’ I looked at it and I was like, ‘I don’t want lines. I just want to be a dead person in the park.’”

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Meyers is far from the only celebrity wanting to go from VIP to RIP. Hargitay said that she recently had a similar experience with a top supermodel.

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“This just happened to me with a supermodel. I’m not going to name her. A big supermodel. Like, the supermodel. Like, one of the greats,” Hargitay explained. “I found out that she loved my show. So I went to the writers and I said, ‘Can she be on the show?’ And she said she wanted to be a dead body, but then I said, ‘No, no, we have this great part for you.’ I call her back. I said, ‘Listen, we got it. We’re going to get you on the show.’ And she goes, ‘Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. I want to be a dead body.’”

Mariska Hargitay Says Celebs Keep Asking Her to Play a Dead Body on Law and Order 2
Mariska Hargitay Todd Williamson/NBC

SVU, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024, has had a who’s who of guest stars over the years, including Robin Williams, Bradley Cooper and Serena Williams.

In January, Hargitay shared some of her favorite guest stars exclusively with Luxury Handbag Shopping.

“There’s been people that have blown my mind,” Hargitay said. “There’s been Robin Williams, there was Jeremy Irons […] and then there were friends that I made that are friends for life who changed my life, like my husband.”

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