J. Smith-Cameron opened up about joining Law & Order: SVU in an episode that felt eerily similar to the ongoing Cornell 7 gang rape investigation.
During the Thursday, October 8, premiere, Smith-Cameron is introduced as Gwen, a jury consultant who offers Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) some assistance on a case involving a woman who claimed three men took advantage of her while she was passed out at a party.
Showrunner Michele Fazekas previously addressed the timing of the Law & Order: SVU episode amid discourse about a lawsuit in which a former Cornell student sued the Ivy League school and seven male fraternity members, alleging that she was drugged and sexually assaulted for at least seven hours in October 2024 at the Chi Phi house in Ithaca, New York.
No arrests have been made, but the local district attorney has said he is reopening the case in light of the civil suit and leaked messages about the alleged assault.
Smith-Cameron, 69, praised the NBC series for its timely storytelling.
“That’s why people — year in and year out — watch the Law & Order shows, and SVU particularly. Because without getting onto a political bent, what a precarious time this is right now for people’s rights and for prisoners’ rights and for women’s rights,” she told Us. “And the Justice Department’s status in the country right now, it’s very precarious. That’s why people get so addicted to these shows.”
She continued: “They get their story ideas right off the headlines, and they always have — as far as I know. Sometimes they’re thinly veiled and sometimes they’re a combination or sometimes they’re suggested by. But they definitely reflect what’s going on, and that’s, I think, why they’re so beloved is it helps people process the news.”
While Smith-Cameron’s character has been shrouded in secrecy, she did hint to Olivia that personal issues have contributed to her support of the SVU.
“I have my own private thoughts, but as an actor, even if the showrunner has a very strong idea of the person’s arc, things change. The news changes. The cast changes. The things unfold,” Cameron added. “So I couldn’t. I didn’t want to put too fine a point on it either in the scene, which Michelle carefully wrote it to not put too fine.”
Smith-Cameron chose to be more “private” about what she thought her character might be referring to, adding, “I’m reluctant to share. Let me just be very private as well in my imagination about what I think it is because I might find out it’s something different than what occurs to me. I am not sure if and when we’ll ever know what that is, because I think Gwen is such a protective, self-protective, private person. But their relationship as confidants is very promising. So we’ll see.”
With Gwen and Olivia forming a connection, Cameron was hoping for more.
“It’s going to be really unique and kind of hopefully — especially for longtime Law & Order: SVU fans. But also for women and also particularly middle-aged or older women to see a relationship like theirs unfold because there’s a professional intersection and there’s a personal intersection and there’s a chemistry that happens between them, and I hope that’ll be very satisfying,” she teased. “It’s unique for that kind of procedural show. So I think that that will be that for me. That’s what I’m hoping for. That’s what I’m looking forward to and hoping I do get the opportunity to do more, more and more episodes.”
She concluded: “There’s almost no end because I think they can talk about the dilemma of justice in a philosophical way. They can talk about their professional challenges, and they can relate to each other as women. I just think that’s exciting and has almost just so many different directions it could go.”
New episodes of Law and Order: SVU premiere on NBC Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET and are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
