The Law & Order Cast Has These Grisly Associations While Driving Around New York
Some Law & Order cast members now have slightly morbid memories of certain Big Apple areas, Hugh Dancy reveals.
When most people pass famous New York landmarks or simple street corners, they usually have memories of places they've dined at or culture they took in — but the cast of Law & Order has slightly more morbid associations with the city.
For the actors who play detectives on the hit NBC legal drama, spots around the five boroughs have inadvertently become tied to places where they've filmed unsavory scenes.
NBC Insider learned this tidbit after recently asking Hugh Dancy, who plays Executive Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price, about how working on Law & Order impacts the actors' relationship with New York City.
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It turns out, at least according to Dancy, that Reid Scott and Mehcad Brooks — who play Detectives Vincent Riley and Jalen Shaw, often among the first called to the scene of grisly murders — have some interesting associations with the city.
Read on to find out what some of the Law & Order stars think about when passing certain New York City spots.
What grisly associations do some Law & Order stars have with NYC?
"It’s funny, I was talking to Reid (Scott) in the car about this the other day," Dancy told NBC Insider in an April 2025 interview, "and this is not my experience, but they say that now when they drive around New York, they’re like, 'Oh yep, found a body there'... 'Yep, yep, we found another body there.' That’s their experience of New York."
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As for Dancy, since his prosecutor character usually shows up on the series after the crime scenes are processed, he doesn't have the same associations as some of his co-stars.
"That is not my experience because I, by and large, don’t find bodies,” Dancy said.
Most of Nolan's scenes take place in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office or the courtroom, where he fights for justice alongside District Attorney Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) and ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi).
What Hugh Dancy believes makes him a New Yorker
The English-born actor, who joined Law & Order in Season 21, lived in the West Village area of Manhattan with wife Claire Danes and their family for more than a decade before recently selling the home while in search of a bigger place, according to People.
As an actor who'd relocated to New York, Dancy acknowledges that "it’s far from being a given to be able to work in the city that you live in and particularly in a show that’s so part of the identity of the city."
"Everybody who lives in New York, who wasn’t born here, you are always having this conversation about when can you call yourself a New Yorker," Dancy told NBC Insider. "And everybody’s got a different theory, but my personal theory is that you have to work on Law & Order — which may not be achievable for everybody, but it works for me."
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Although the detectives and prosecutors of Law & Order are taking the summer off, they’ll be back to their crime-fighting ways soon enough for the series milestone 25th season. Until then, fans can catch up on all the drama from Season 24 and beyond by streaming old episodes on Peacock.
