Jenna Bush Hager’s Unusual Acting Dream: Playing a Corpse on Law & Order
Jenna Bush Hager has set her sights on a role that’s both unusual and oddly popular among celebrities — playing a dead body on the long-running crime drama Law & Order.
During a lighthearted segment on the July 22 episode of Today with Jenna & Friends, the television host surprised guest Tony Goldwyn, who currently stars in Law & Order, with a unique acting aspiration. “Well, if you’re looking for a dead person,” Jenna joked, “I’d play a dead person.”
Goldwyn, a seasoned actor known for roles in Scandal and now Law & Order, quickly advised her to think twice. “Can I give you some advice? You don’t want to,” he warned, drawing from his own on-screen experiences. According to Goldwyn, playing a corpse is far from glamorous: “You’re lying there for hours and people are working around you,” he explained. “And you’re ready to get up after 20 minutes and they say, ‘No, you have 12 more hours laying on this slab.’”
Jenna quickly backtracked after hearing the full reality of the role. “That doesn’t sound good. Never mind,” she laughed.
But it turns out Jenna isn’t alone in this strangely morbid dream. Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay previously shared a similar story on Late Night with Seth Meyers, revealing that many celebrities have requested to appear on the show — but only as dead bodies. “All the famous people, you know what they want?” she said. “To be a dead body. It’s so weird.”
Hargitay recalled how even a supermodel fan of the show once insisted on being cast as a corpse, despite being offered a speaking role. “I said, ‘We’ve got this part for you,’” Hargitay said. “And she replied, ‘Oh no no no, I want to be a dead body.’”
While playing a lifeless character may not sound appealing to most, it’s apparently a badge of honor in Hollywood — and Law & Order remains the ultimate stage for such a performance. Whether or not Jenna Bush Hager ever gets her dream role, one thing is clear: dying to be on TV has never been taken so literally.