‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Will Appear on ‘Inside the Actors Studio’

Longtime NBC star Mariska Hargitay is finally taking the plunge and making an appearance on Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio.

It's been noted by The Hollywood Reporter that the Law & Order: SVU star's appearance in the chair next to host James Lipton will air this coming Monday, Sept 22, at 8 p.m.

A small clip from the forthcoming episode can be seen at THR. In it, everyone's favorite detective describes the story of getting the SVU gig. She claims, "I remember getting the script for SVU with a warning from my manager ... who said, 'Mariska, I don't know if you're going to appreciate the subject matter. It's very dark.'"

The actress added that she "felt a connection" once reading the script, calling it "unlike any other script" she ever read before. "I was so excited to go in and audition for it. [I] met Dick Wolf and the rest is history."

"The fact that that they were doing a show about sex crimes," she noted, "and things that people continually sweep under the carpet, I thought, 'That is a show that I want to be on, that's a show that is going to talk about issues that nobody wants to talk about,' and it did ... and boy am I glad I'm on."

When asked why she felt the desire to play Olivia Benson, the actress claimed that it was her "need" for both justice and righting wrongs as well as the "compassion" and "love" the character holds.

Her interview, of course, ventures outside of SVU and touches on working with George Clooney on ER and growing up as the daughter of Hollywood's own Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay.