’Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Fought For Amanda Rollins To Stay, But It Wasn’t Enough

As Law and Order: Special Victims Unit heads towards the end of their landmark, 25th season, one character that’s been a staple for years following the departure of Christopher Meloni‘s Detective Elliott Stabler is Kelli Giddish‘s Detective Amanda Rollins. When Giddish left, she’d been with the show for half its run. The controversial exit was met with vocal disapproval from fans and Captain Olivia Benson herself, Mariska Harigaty. In an interview with Variety, Hargitay sat down to talk about everything SVU and its impact, including about her feelings on Giddish’s departure. She said:

“Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart. It’s a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show, but I didn’t have enough there.”

Thankfully, Giddish has returned in guest appearance spots during the show’s 24th and 25th seasons. In her final season, we saw Rollins marry her longtime partner, district attorney Dominic Carisi and Season 25 opened with the christening of her and Carisi’s daughter. Rollins would leave NYPD and take a teaching job, with her expertise still being sought out by Benson in trying times, opening the window for these guest spots.

Lightning Struck Twice on ‘Law & Order: SVU’

With Meloni’s exit, it would be difficult to replicate an electric chemistry that came naturally between Hargitay and Meloni, so when the focus shifted to a steadfast close female friendship, leaning on each other in life’s craziest times, as they happen each season on SVU, Benson and Rollins became a fan favorite dynamic. “That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television,” Hargitay says. “You saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.”

Rollins and Benson would form bonds over lost familial relationships, motherhood, and more during Giddish’s 12-season stint. That strong relationship is what made Hargitay so vocal about the move to write Rollins out of the show. “I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right.” Hargitay has worked with creator Dick Wolf since the series inception in the late 1990s. She’s since taken on an executive producer role and has even directed. She says that “he and I have had some gnarly negotiations. And I don’t think he’s had that with anyone else.” Unfortunately, those gnarly negotiations still resulted in the departure of Giddish’s Amanda Rollins.

Law & Order: SVU airs on Thursdays on NBC and new episodes are available on streaming on Fridays on Peacock.