The Motto Mariska Hargitay Learned from Dad Mickey That Got Her Through “Hard Years”
When the going gets tough, you can rely on the endlessly badass SVU star to get going.
If there's anyone who understands the value of resilience and endurance, it's Mariska Hargitay, the dynamite star behind Captain Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Like Benson, Hargitay doesn't believe in quitting.
In a January TODAY interview, the SVU legend revealed her father — the late bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay — inspired that dedication. Mickey Hargitay, an avid bodybuilder, skyrocketed to notoriety after winning Mr. Universe in 1955, later starring in several films alongside Hargitay's mother, the late Hollywood starlet Jayne Mansfield. Between his bodybuilding resume and his time in the entertainment industry, Mickey knew it was important to teach his daughter the value of dedicating herself to a goal.
RELATED: Mariska Hargitay's Dad Mickey Hargitay Guest Starred in SVU's 100th Episode
"I was sort of raised with the motto of, 'We don't quit in this family,'" Hargitay told TODAY's Willie Geist. "'And if that's what you want to do, then you do it, and you work harder, and you click your heels together three times and say, "That's the best I can do," but we don't quit,'"
Mariska Hargitay has been honoring her father's advice since childhood
When the actress began competitive swimming in high school, she gained the prime opportunity to heed her father's motto and strengthen her resolve in the face of a challenge.
"He would say to me, 'It takes this much more to win in the swim meet,' which was, you know, super challenging for me..." Hargitay remembered. "But my dad kept the inspiration and the work ethic in there by giving me something to strive for."
That endurance to keep going even when we feel low, she later added, is "a muscle that we have to learn."
Her household's tried-and-true mantras developed a tenacity in Hargitay that translated perfectly to the SVU icon's work on Law & Order. "High school sports and my father's training taught me how to get back on the horse and have the stamina to do SVU. 'Cause there were hard years."
As SVU fans know, Benson doesn't take many PTO days — she's always on. Hargitay continued, "There were times when I [thought], 'I don't know if I have it. I don't know if I can continue this. But then, we would do an episode, and I fell so madly, deeply in love with my co-stars. And I was working with such great actors."
During those challenging days, Hargitay remembers telling herself to "just keep digging" just as her father would have wanted. "That's why I'm still there because we have an extraordinarily invested and committed team at SVU, and that's probably the thing that I'm most proud of, and that I hear the most from guest stars. They say, 'I cannot believe that you're still invested, this invested.'"
Watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
