Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Unofficial Companion (18 page)

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Authors: Susan Green,Randee Dawn

10:25 A.M.
Someone has brought homemade brownies. Dean Taucher, the production designer, enjoys a bite before providing a tour of his not fully assembled secondary sets. A crew member hammers down carpet in a hotel room painted in gray with white edging. The rug has padding underneath because there’s going to be a brawl between Stabler and James Brolin’s character, Dick Finley. Taucher points to where the fight will end, when the two fall on top of a table that looks real—but is really just made up of flimsy balsa wood and special breakaway (or “candy”) glass.
Elsewhere, there’s a screen painted to represent the interior of a spaceship, where soon-to-perish Marga will be seen floating in zero gravity. This can be accomplished by dangling her from wires, while moving the entire set back and forth on casters.
10:50 A.M.
Hargitay, holding the kind of black plastic bowl available on the set during meals, tells a crew member that it’s not eco-friendly. “Can’t they find something greener?”
Veteran actress Betty Buckley is dressed in a black suit and carrying a briefcase to portray Vince’s defense attorney. Her character—attorney Collette Walsh, described in the script as “the legal lioness”—has been seen on
SVU
several times before.
James Brolin arrives. He’s been cast as astronaut Dick Finley, Stabler’s fellow former Marine and longtime mentor.
11:10 A.M.
Hargitay tells Dan Truly she’s seen James Brolin and is thrilled that the script calls for him to ask her character out on a date. Olivia goes for his type, in her estimation. Ditto for the role of Benson’s boyfriend that Bill Pullman inhabited in “Closet” (season nine).
Hargitay: “I won’t lie. James Brolin is hot!”
Someone jokes that his wife, Barbra Streisand, might come looking for her.
Daniel Truly
Hargitay (with bravado): “I’m not frightened.”
11:17 A.M.
Between takes of a scene with Vince, Buckley recounts how her lawyer character’s SVU cases have turned out over the years. “I represent all losers,” she surmises.
NOON
Meloni suggests to Leto that junkie Vince “clearly is still in that whack place” and should therefore blurt out his willingness to help the cops, rather than say so in the course of normal conversation. It’s a good call, so they convey this to DeHaan.
Several women on the crew sport T-shirts emblazoned with Hargitay’s name; they’re souvenirs of
The Love Guru
, a 2008 film in which star Mike Myers repeatedly utters “Mariska Hargitay” as his mantra. She has a cameo role in the comedy and began selling the shirts, along with other merchandise, on her website.
12:15 P.M
.
Chris Martini—the editor of
Dirty Movie
, a 2008 feature written and produced by its star, Christopher Meloni—watches the proceedings.
Leto, starting to show signs of being pressed for time: “With any hope, we can get this done. Come on, you silly freaks!” They make him happy in three takes.
1:50 P.M
.
A prop person shows up with a four-inch model of a rocket that Dick Finley will give to Stabler’s son Dickie, named in honor of the astronaut. The toy will bear a fingerprint that yields key evidence.
Leto wants to continue shooting but the mandatory lunch break is only ten minutes away. “Two days back (from hiatus) and it’s like the wind is knocked out of me,” he laments.
4:12 P.M
.
Leto, finally finished with Vince’s interrogation scene, announces: “Cut! Let’s get out of this room quick.” Perhaps that’s because it feels like 100 degrees Fahrenheit under the lights on this oppressive July afternoon.
4:16 P.M
.
Ted Kotcheff watches camera tests for Michaela McManus, who is replacing Diane Neal as the new ADA (Kim Greylek). A slinky brunette, she has remarkably high cheekbones and dazzling blue eyes. Key hair stylist Brian Badie sprays her tightly upswept ’do. Costume designer Tina Nigro has dressed the actress in a tailored black suit over a gray blouse. They all seem to be going for an Ice Queen look.
Kotcheff asks if there’ll be “any accoutrements.” McManus has small pearl earrings on but otherwise no jewelry or accessories.
(Hargitay later comments: “I got a great vibe from the new girl. And she’s gorgeous.”)
4:50 P.M
.
Rehearsal of the morgue scene in which Andrea (Therese Plummer) must identify Marga’s body. When Truly expresses concern that her reaction ought to be more emotional, Leto says it’s just the rehearsal. With a mock Yiddish accent, he adds: “You vant she should spend it all now?”
5:20 P.M.
The atmosphere in the room has become tense. Today’s shoot is running late with take after take. In between, Meloni and Hargitay rest in their high director-style chairs; hers has “August’s Mommy” printed on the back.
SVU
’s morgue set
5:40 P.M.
Dan Truly mentions that his father (U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly) is an actual former astronaut who flew on two NASA shuttle missions (in 1981 and 1983).
6 P.M.
Dann Florek appears in the holding room, where meals are served and extras await their moment in the sun. He chats about working in
American Buffalo
, a play by David Mamet.
6:15 P.M.
During a scene in which Benson talks about the discovery of Marga’s earring, she indicates her own ear. This amuses Leo and Truly, who point to their necks, wrists, and other areas of the body where jewelry might go. They’re a bit punchy.
7 P.M.
Leto (after a scene is filmed): “Ah! Oh! The horror, the horror.”
7:20 P.M.
Puge Ruhe, a production assistant who handles the “background”—or non-speaking—extras, rounds up a gaggle of rather seedy-looking men who have been sitting in the holding room for hours: “All my lineup dudes, let’s go!”
7:30 P.M.
The lineup dudes, in identical beige baseball caps, rehearse a scene with DeHaan, Hargitay, and Florek looking at them through the one-way glass window. These possible perps are joined by Chris Elliott, a guest star playing an unhinged stalker obsessed with astronauts.
7:35 P.M.
Electrician Ronnie Paul, an
SVU
staffer from the beginning, recalls that his daughter was six months old when she took her first steps in front of Meloni’s dressing room. The girl later portrayed a Romanian orphan in “Poison,” a season five episode. “You know, forty-eight kids have been born to this show since we started,” he says wistfully.
7:50 P.M.
George Pattison, the director of photography, proclaims: “C’est bon!” This take of the lineup scene meets with his approval.
THURSDAY, JULY 17
NOON
The Emmy nominations have been announced. In addition to two guest stars from season nine (Cynthia Nixon for “Alternate” and Robin Williams for “Authority”), Mariska Hargitay is on the list again. Her “people” are reportedly on the set, urging her to do some canned video quotes for shows like
Access Hollywood
.
August is visiting and he charms everyone. Ice-T notes that his son, now sixteen, also grew up among adults, but in the recording studio.
12:10 P.M.
In the SVU squad room, astronaut groupie Anton (Chris Elliott) is being interrogated near Cragen’s office. Leto’s sipping a large iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts, while Brolin quietly rehearses his lines.
Under intense questioning from Stabler, Anton sweeps the articles on a desk to the floor, as Cragen and Dr. Huang watch. This is B.D. Wong’s (Dr. George Huang) first day on the set for the episode.
12:30 P.M.
Script supervisor Stephanie Marquardt says Chris Meloni, who plays Elliot Stabler, had mused, “Could there be a more confusing actor to have on this show than someone named Chris Elliott?”
12:35 P.M.
The same scene is reconfigured to shoot again, but from a different angle. Filming takes up perhaps 10 percent of the day; everything else is moving furniture and equipment or rehearsing.
1:05 P.M.
The SVU squad room, painted a drab green, boasts real and mock law enforcement posters. The place looks coolly authentic but the temperature is hot, hot, hot. The North Bergen building does have A/C, but it’s switched off in the soundstage areas when cameras are rolling because of the ambient noise that’s created. Someone suggests the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the facility is just a retrofitted warehouse.
Between takes of their scene, Dann Florek says to B.D. Wong: “They’ve been lying to us about the air conditioning for ten years, bro’.”
Truly suggests to Leto how lucky Brolin is to have become “a silver-haired lion” on camera.
1:15 P.M.
Cot and hat props, inside Capt. Cragen’s Office
A prop man brings Leto two identical mugs for an upcoming scene in which Stabler, Benson, and Brolin’s Finley drink whiskey while eating Chinese food. But the director wants them mismatched and “from the cupboard,” not new.
A crew member shows his laptop with clips from real-life Apollo launches to Leto, who is humming MTV’s theme song. He wants space shuttle footage, as well. Someone refreshes the ever-present 35-pack of Poland Spring water bottles that rests next to the cart holding the monitors.
1:30 P.M.
Leto emerges from the interrogation room: “It’s a well-oiled, rusted machine,” he says, in a slight variation on the cliché everyone uses to describe all Law & Order shows. Looking at Cragen, Huang, and Finley on the monitor, he notes: “There’s a three-shot that’s never been seen before in
SVU
history.”
1:45 P.M.
The holding room is packed with actors, primarily middle-aged, dressed as uniformed cops or detectives. They’ll be the seen-but-not-heard occupants of the squad room when the script dictates. Meanwhile, several of them are playing cards to pass the time.

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