Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni met on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999 — and decades later their bond is still going strong.
“I have a million memories from the pilot, especially the immediate chemistry with Chris. We were filming in the Meatpacking District, and it was really hot and raining, so we all had to wear baseball caps,” Hargitay recalled to TV Insider in 2018. “I was going, ‘How lucky is this California girl to be shooting a television series in New York with this fantastic actor and fantastic crew!’”
For years, fans wanted their characters, Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, to come together romantically, but that never happened. Instead, Elliot and Liv formed a seemingly unbreakable working relationship and friendship — until he unexpectedly left the unit at the end of season 12 in 2011.
Meloni returned to SVU for the first time in 10 years in an April 2021 episode before kicking off his series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. The two actors have since crossed over to each other’s shows — and their chemistry still can’t be beat.
Scroll down for Hargitay and Meloni’s quotes about their friendship: