Mariska Hargitay Turned This Silly Set Moment Into a Gift for the Law & Order Cast
When the worlds of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit collided for a memorable crossover episode, they walked away with a hilarious souvenir, courtesy of a flubbed line and Mariska Hargitay’s generosity.
While filming a Law & Order Season 24 crossover episode, “The Perfect Man,” Hargitay for the first time got to be in a scene as Captain Olivia Benson with Hugh Dancy, who plays Executive Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price, and Tony Goldwyn, who plays District Attorney Nicholas Baxter. And an unexpected by-product of their time together ended up being bespoke t-shirts commemorating an inside joke that brought the cast and crew together with some needed laughs.
The sweet and silly reason Mariska Hargitay had shirts made for the Law & Order cast and crew
In an October 2024 interview with ExtraTV, Hargitay explained that every Law & Order series has its own set vibe, but regardless she takes it upon herself to create an atmosphere of trust and intimacy for the actors. “Because we’re here every day, all day long, it’s important to me that everyone’s happy and that everyone wants to come to work, so we laugh,” she said.
With that in mind, the actress acknowledged she was the “visitor” for the Season 24 crossover episode, so she wanted to follow the lead of her scene partners, Dancy and Goldwyn.
“Hugh is English, and he’s so good and so professional and quite buttoned up, I might say,” she observed. “And so I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get it together when I’m here!’ And this actor … in my two or three days working with him, he never flubs a line.
“I wasn’t familiar with [that] because I flub so many lines,” she continued with a laugh. “Then it becomes shtick or a joke, or we just play and have a lot of freedom. But he’s so amazing and meticulous and talented and buttoned up. So it was like, ‘Okay, people! Let’s bring our A game.’ And you know, you’re a guest, so you want to adjust.”
Goldwyn then jokingly said that he took one for the team by flubbing his lines. For example, at the end of an intense debate scene they were having with Nolan Price, Goldwyn’s last line of the scene was supposed to be, “Make the deal, Nolan!”
“Now, my name is Nick Baxter on the show, so every time I’d be like, ‘Make the deal, Nick!’ And they would stop and go, ‘Uhm, Tony, you’re Nick.’ And then again, ‘Make the deal, Nick!’ I kept doing it. I could not get it right!” he laughed. “So we’re all falling apart laughing.”
“He’s couldn’t stop and then it became a schtick,” Hargitay continued. “[We’re] laughing, laughing, laughing all of us. It was such a great icebreaker, and I felt so comfortable, and I was like flattering myself, going, ‘Oh, he’s nervous.'”
Goldwyn then deadpanned, “So what did you do?”
She fessed up, “It was a shtick and everyone was saying, ‘Make the deal, Nick!’ And so by the end, I think the next day — thank you for giving me credit — I got t-shirts made for the crew.”
Now the whole crew owns their own t-shirt that says: “Make the deal, Nick!” And Goldwyn confirmed he’s been known to wear it at the gym. “It’s a great t-shirt,” he gushed.