The First Words Mariska Hargitay Said to Chris Meloni Were Accidentally Awkward
It all went down during their first Law & Order: SVU audition.
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni didn't know when they first auditioned for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that they were starting the adventure of a lifetime. In fact, Hargitay didn't even know Meloni was the actor auditioning with her on that fateful day. She thought someone else was reading with her—which is why her first interaction with Meloni was accidentally awkward.
"We walked into the screen test," Meloni recalled to Entertainment Tonight in a throwback interview clip. "And there's Mariska going around, doing her hair like this." (He then mimicked Hargitay flipping her hair up and down, which made Hargitay laugh. "Lies!" she insisted.)
"She turns to me, and she goes, 'So and so!'" Meloni said, suggesting that when Hargitay first met him, she thought he was a different actor. "She goes, 'So and so! You must be so and so!' I go, 'No. Meloni.' She goes, 'Whatever! Hi!'"
Hargitay was cracking up as Meloni told the story. This extremely human moment between the two actors clearly established a real connection. "And then we met. There were three actors and three actors, and we got paired up together," Hargitay told ET.
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The two hit it off so well, Meloni remembered, "We walked into the final screen test laughing. Most people go in [and nervously say], 'Hi, how are you?' All the executives are there. [You nervously say], 'We're now going to do one of the scenes. Are you ready? Are you connected?' She and I were [hysterically laughing]."
The chemistry was evident from the jump. "I knew quickly that we had this kind of magical chemistry," Hargitay told TODAY in 2025. "Chris and I are polar opposites in terms of who we are as people. And yet, there was this yin-yang. So when they paired us, I was like, 'Oh, this is done.'"
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni's friendship has stood the test of time
Fast-forward over 25 years later, Hargitay and Meloni are still the best of friends. Meloni is currently starring on Law & Order: Organized Crime, while Hargitay is holding down the fort on SVU, which just wrapped its 26th season. Their characters, Benson and Stabler, still interact with each other frequently. Fan went crazy in March 2025 when Hargitay and Meloni were spotted filming together. Through it all, they've kept their bond.
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“She’s fearless, without the bravado of the warrior stance, but always with the open arms, the open heart," Meloni said about Hargitay in a 2021 speech honoring her at Glamour's Women of the Year Awards. "She’s a connector of people because she knows we’re all better when we’re working together. She is as comfortable in the sacred as she is in the profane; she is a soul in the constant search of the beauty and the truth that she knows that this world holds, but she also knows that it requires vigilance, persistence, and insistence to pry magic from the oftentimes mundane reality. Her first instance is to always react with compassion and empathy. She sees hope in the hopeless; she sees the potential in the you, and me, and us."
