Mariska Hargitay nearly left 'Law & Order SVU' over fear of being a 'one-trick pony'

Mariska Hargitay once considered leaving "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" after more than two decades as Olivia Benson because she worried the role had come to define her career.

In a new interview with Variety, the actress — who has starred as Benson since "SVU" premiered in 1999 — said she began questioning her future on the long-running NBC drama around its 25th season.

"I’ve got to leave the show too. I don’t want people to think I’m a one-trick pony," Hargitay recalled telling "ER" co-star Julianna Margulies.

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Mariska Hargitay explained why she nearly quit "Law & Order: SVU" during a new interview with Variety. (Getty Images; Michael Schwartz for Variety)

Margulies, who famously left "ER" after six seasons, had a blunt response.

"Sweetheart, that ship’s sailed," Hargitay said Margulies told her.

While Benson made her a household name, the Emmy winner admitted she often felt constrained creatively due to the grueling production schedule.

"The comedy thing was painful to me because I felt like I was only exercising one part of myself," Hargitay said. "People would say, ‘You need to get off that show and do comedy. You need to get off that show and have a talk show.’"

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Hargitay has portrayed Olivia Benson since 1999. (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

"I wasn’t ready to leave, because I loved it," she said. "And then I got to do all this other stuff, and that’s why I don’t think about leaving right now. Do I want to quit now? No. Why? I made a movie while shooting; I did a play for six weeks on hiatus. I’m hosting the Emmys."

In 2023, Hargitay opened up to Fox News Digital about franchise creator and producer Dick Wolf's "great writing." 

"Dick Wolf is truly a visionary," she said Tuesday. "And I think that's a very singular thing to be a true visionary who understands our culture in a very deep way, but also understands it's sort of ironic that a crime show would be actually calming in a way to our nervous system, knowing that somebody is out there taking care of it."

Mariska Hargitay said she's not thinking about leaving "SVU" anytime soon. (Michael Schwartz for Variety)

She continued, "That our voices are heard and there are people that are on it. So that is it."

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"It's a very sort of interesting dichotomy," Hargitay added. "Because you think about a crime show, which normally should sort of upset your nervous system, actually can settle it down because of that."

"Law & Order's" success spawned seven spinoffs, including "Special Victims Unit," "Criminal Intent," "Trial by Jury," "LA," "UK," "True Crime" and "Organized Crime."

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The actress is gearing up to host the Emmys next month. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

In 2019, "SVU" became the longest-running live-action television series in history. Hargitay has starred as Detective Olivia Benson in the police procedural since its premiere in 1999 and became an executive producer in 2016.

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Fox News Digital's Larry Fink contributed to this post.