“I was in the backyard with no shirt on,” begins Christopher Meloni, recalling the moment when he was asked to repeat his iconic role as Det. Elliot Stabler for the new Law and Order: Organized Crime. “It will help with the article. I was naked. Come on! Let’s give it a special touch.”
Meloni is now fully dressed and secluded in his New York City apartment; a positive case of COVID-19 briefly ended the production of the NBC spin-off which opens on April 1. But, at 60, he certainly appreciates his Hollywood zaddy status when describing ex-boss Dick Wolf’s initial proposal.
“I was intrigued by a number of personal reasons,” said Meloni, who has been in close contact with the über producer since he left Special Victims Unit in 2011, amid rumors of a contract dispute with NBCUniversal. “If you have, at least from my perspective, a very well-known and loved TV character who suddenly came out and, I would say, without ceremony … there is a built-in recognition capacity, something that needs to be quenched with a sense of closure. All of these things are very attractive. “
Faster than you can make Stabler’s blood boil, Meloni has agreed to return to Police Station 16 – but only to say hi to Captain Olivia Benson of Mariska Hargitay, her former partner, for a single crossover episode that will air before of the debut of Organized crime. As for a possible permanent return to SVU, the actor was not interested in investigating this perspective.
“I didn’t want to do that,” says Meloni. “It was like going back to what it was. That boat had sailed.”
So, where’s the Stabler going? New York Mafia City, where various mafia offenses will take Stabler and his companions (including Chicago MedDanielle Moné Truitt as Police Sergeant Ayanna Bell) a long time to resolve. Dylan McDermott (american horror story) and Tamara Taylor (Bones) also play supporting main characters, but NBC is maintaining control over the details.
“It is not the case this week, because organized crime does not work that way,” explains executive producer Ilene Chaiken (The L word), who took over from Wolf Entertainment veteran Matt Olmstead as a showrunner in October. (Experts insist that there was no animosity over Olmstead’s brief term, and he remains in the fold of NBC Universal.) “It’s an episodic program; the episodes will be independent. But the stories will also unfold over the course of an entire season.”
This gives Chaiken plenty of time to explore Stabler’s rich history as a former Queens Marine with a wife, five children and a tendency to lose his cool at work. (Old one SVU showrunner Neal Baer describes the crime crew that is the show’s signature as follows: “Benson was the empathy we feel for the victims, while Stabler was the id – the anger or fury over what happened to them.”)
But do not wait for the old temperaments to reignite. “I don’t want, you know, an Elliot Stabler in his fifties stomping, unable to control his anger any more,” says Meloni. “This is not an attractive thing to watch.”
“We want to do a different Law and order, “continues Chaiken, who has never worked for a CSI– or NCIS-type show before. (His credits also include Empire and The Handmaid’s Tale.) “If they had asked me to do a conventional procedure, I probably would not have said yes, because it is not my strength and it is not my interest. Yes, it is an important part of the franchise, and fans will understand all the things that want from him. But the first thing [Wolf’s team] said to me is that the show is serialized. Your family, your history, everything is part of the show. This is the show – who this man was, who he is. ”
Oh yes, about that: the last time we saw Stabler was at the end of season 12, when he shot a young woman who was avenging her mother’s murder. (It was revealed in the 13th season premiere that Stabler responded by retiring.) Off-camera, word spread that the wage negotiations went south, prompting Meloni to withdraw unexpectedly after the end. With a raise or no raise (he declined a payment of $ 8-9 million), the actor often claims he has no ill will towards the show or Wolf.
“It was time,” says Meloni today. “There were some triggers for that. But when I walked, I thought, ‘Okay, good.’ That was it. ”
And for almost 10 years, Meloni never looked back: he played an old vampire in True Blood, a killer with an imaginary friend on Syfy Happy!, and an imperious high commander in The servant’s tale.
“Zero”, he says when asked how much he lost SVU. “I would have no problem admitting it. But I was pleasantly surprised that it worked so well. Because, you know, that’s not how life goes, right? You can have all the dreams you want, all the prejudices, notions of what it’s going to be like. But I must say, the decade that followed was everything I could have hoped for. ”
However, in a Corleone-style twist (and one that seems especially appropriate for the new series), Wolf wanted to pull him back.
“That could really work,” insists Wolf, adding that he wanted Meloni to return “from the day he left … Elliot Stabler is tough as nails, has an infallible moral compass and is the policeman we want to show up if you need to on one. ”
Meloni knew he made the right decision the moment he put on the 6313 badge again.
“It was great, an amazing feeling of freedom,” he says. “It was a very interesting feeling because I rarely have it. It was just a strange sign that everything is fine, and I was where I belonged.”
A version of this story appears in the April issue of Weekly entertainment, on newsstands now and available here. Don’t forget to sign up for more interviews and exclusive photos, only at EW.