In an interview with Inside the Actors Studio‘s James Lipton on Bravo, actress Mariska Hargitay shared how she fought to get a role on E.R. in the late ’90s. She said she didn’t pass the audition because of her ‘strong’ character. The actress demanded to meet with E.R.’s casting director to find out more.
The response wasn’t a negative one. “He said, ‘I have a vision for this part and I like to cast closer to type. The character was a very weak, fragile, fragmented, nervous girl. You’re very strong. You’re not exactly the type,'” she said of the conversation. “I said, ‘You’re telling me I acted it better than anybody and I’m not getting it because I’m not that way in real life? And by the time I got home, they had called and offered me the role.”
Mariska Hargitay is known by millions in her role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Sgt. Olivia Benson.
Video of the interview: