Mariska Hargitay says she feels like she was made to help the lost child who apparently mistook the actress for a real police officer while she was filming the 25th season of her hit NBC series last month.
In photos captured by paparazzi, the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit the star was filming alongside her co-star, Ice-T, when she was approached by a girl who had been separated from her mother and needed help finding her. The case of mistaken identity is understandable considering that Hargitay, 60, wears a police badge as part of Olivia Benson’s outfit.
“Mariska was filming with Ice-T and was interrupted by a girl walking into the scene. She went straight to Mariska,” an eyewitness told ET at the time. The witness added that Hargitay stopped filming after being approached by the girl and happily helped reunite her with her mother.
Speaking with ET’s Rachel Smith at Variety’s Power of Women event presented by Lifetime in New York on Thursday, Hargitay says she doesn’t know if her costume led the girl to believe she was an officer, but she felt she and the Lost Child “were intended to connect at the time we did.”
“This little angel was in need and we connected and I could see that. So I did what any mother on this planet would do,” she told ET.
Although Hargitay hasn’t been in touch with the reunited mother-daughter duo since, she says she’s pleased with how she left things. “I got to hug her mom and her, and it was beautiful.”
The two-time Emmy winner was honored at the Power of Women event for her work as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence. Hargitay was introduced by her close friend, Glenn Close, before taking the stage at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she gave a powerful speech about her dedication to continuing to listen to survivors and keep fighting.
“I’m very emotional, it’s a very beautiful moment,” Hargitay told ET about celebrating the day. “You know, you think about these giants, what people have done in this business and what they’ve worked for and how hard they’ve worked to get where they are and just the megawatt talent in the room today — it’s exciting and inspiring and intimidating.
Hargitay portrayed Law and Order: Special Victims UnitOlivia Benson since the show’s debut in 1999 and has been a fierce advocate for changing the narrative around sexual assault.
In 2004, the actress launched the Joyful Heart Foundationan organization whose mission is to “transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support healing for survivors, and end this violence for good.”
The foundation has launched several programs, including the End the Backlog initiative that prioritizes eliminating the huge backlog of untested rape kits in police departments.
Hargitay explains that she will continue to fight for survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence and child abuse to have their stories told because “this continues to happen in the world”.
“Men still commit these crimes and sexual assault is still an epidemic in our country…it needs to stop and it has to end,” she says. “We have to end this construction that has been going on for thousands of years and we have to change the way we talk about these issues; the words we use, the grammar we use to talk about sexual assault. This and this here today, in the presence of the power of women who can help enforce these changes, (is a) very exciting day.”
She adds: “I think male and patriarchal impunity has to end. It will take time, it will be complicated, it will be difficult to control, but it is not impossible and we are in the process of changing”.
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