SVU’s Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni’s Sweetest Quotes About Each Other

Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

SVU's Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni’s Sweetest Quotes About Each Other

An unbreakable bond — on and off screen. Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni first met on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999, when they were cast as Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, respectively. "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 on the series, fans wanted their characters to come together romantically, something 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. Meloni exited the NBC drama in 2011, choosing to focus on other projects. Still, the actor's relationship with Hargitay remained and the pair reunited on many occasions, often snapping selfies and sharing them on social media for the longtime fans. [jwplayer UZuY8GPR] Meloni returned to SVU for the first time in 10 years in an April 2021 episode before kicking off his new series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. He revealed that he just felt it was time to bring Stabler back — something that was confirmed during his first night of shooting, when he stepped out of his trailer and a woman saw him on the street. “She goes, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God,’ and she starts hyperventilating. Tears start swelling and forming in her eyes,” he told TVLine in March 2021. “I’m like, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ She goes, ‘No, you don’t understand: You’re the reason I became a cop.' That was my introduction back to the meaning and the power and the place that my character — and our characters — have held in the consciousness of many people. It was nice." Hargitay, meanwhile, confirmed in January 2022 that fans are not the only ones who feel the chemistry between Benson and Stabler. “Olivia Benson is hurt! I mean, he left me in a lurch for 10 years. She’s frightened,” she explained on The Drew Barrymore Show. “The energy’s there. Olivia’s been in love with him for many a year and I think that we are slowly finding our way back to it, but I want to give him the amount of time he needs to grieve Kathy Stabler.” Scroll through the gallery below for more of their best quotes about their close friendship: [podcast_block]

Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

SVU's Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni’s Sweetest Quotes About Each Other

An unbreakable bond — on and off screen. Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni first met on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999, when they were cast as Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler, respectively. "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 on the series, fans wanted their characters to come together romantically, something 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. Meloni exited the NBC drama in 2011, choosing to focus on other projects. Still, the actor's relationship with Hargitay remained and the pair reunited on many occasions, often snapping selfies and sharing them on social media for the longtime fans. [jwplayer UZuY8GPR] Meloni returned to SVU for the first time in 10 years in an April 2021 episode before kicking off his new series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. He revealed that he just felt it was time to bring Stabler back — something that was confirmed during his first night of shooting, when he stepped out of his trailer and a woman saw him on the street. “She goes, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God,’ and she starts hyperventilating. Tears start swelling and forming in her eyes,” he told TVLine in March 2021. “I’m like, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ She goes, ‘No, you don’t understand: You’re the reason I became a cop.' That was my introduction back to the meaning and the power and the place that my character — and our characters — have held in the consciousness of many people. It was nice." Hargitay, meanwhile, confirmed in January 2022 that fans are not the only ones who feel the chemistry between Benson and Stabler. “Olivia Benson is hurt! I mean, he left me in a lurch for 10 years. She’s frightened,” she explained on The Drew Barrymore Show. “The energy’s there. Olivia’s been in love with him for many a year and I think that we are slowly finding our way back to it, but I want to give him the amount of time he needs to grieve Kathy Stabler.” Scroll through the gallery below for more of their best quotes about their close friendship: [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy Mariska Hargitay/Instagram

Still Got It

Hargitay shared a special tribute to her costar on his birthday in April 2022, writing via Instagram, "Happy 61 @chris_meloni you're aging like a fine wine cheers🍷🔥🎉 #HeStillGotIt."

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Like Coming Home

Meloni may have spent a decade away from the Law & Order franchise, but he was able to pick up exactly where he left off with his former costar. "[It was like] zero time had passed," Hargitay told Entertainment Tonight in February 2022 about their onscreen reunion. "[We] didn’t miss a step and it just felt so good. It felt like home."

Meloni echoed those sentiments, explaining that "because there's history, there’s an effortlessness" to their partnership. "I think we get to play notes that only she and I can play together, you know? Whatever comes out of the duet is very unique. And so, that is refreshing and gives life to both of us."

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A Special Honor

Meloni presented Hargitay with her Glamour Woman of the Year Award in November 2021. Ahead of the event, she told Us exclusively that it was “deeply meaningful” for her longtime costar to be the one to present her with the honor.

“I have been trusted with one task tonight, introduce someone who needs no introduction, who I’ve been working with for 13 years, and been friends with for 22,” Meloni said in his speech, per reports. “She’s got great energy, great personality. So tonight, I say this: Radiant. Charming. Funny. Generous. Elegant. Bawdy. Honest. Appreciative. Inclusive. Direct. Vivacious. That’s my favorite word; it comes from the Latin, to live. Which is what she does with great passion, every day, with everyone that she engages, be they friends, family, strangers or commitments.”

He added: “She’s fearless, without the bravado of the warrior stance, but always with the open arms, the open heart. She’s a connector of people, because she knows we’re all better when we’re working together. She is as comfortable in the sacred as she is in the profane; she is a soul in the constant search of the beauty and the truth that she knows that this world holds, but she also knows requires vigilance, persistence, and insistence to pry magic from the often times mundane reality. Her first instance is to always react with compassion and empathy. She sees hope in the hopeless; she sees the potential in the you, and me, and us.”

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Sparks Flew Instantly

During auditions, Meloni thought, "Who's the chick with all the energy?" he shared in 2009's The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion book. "I just knew that Mariska was going to be The One. I was in the middle of telling her this story, this joke. So we got up on the stage and I'm like, 'Hold on just a second, I'm going to finish telling this story.' Not being disrespectful, but this is important too. This may change my life, but the story is that funny. And I think that put us at ease, and unconsciously there was a connection you could see: That she was now my partner."

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The Perfect Combo

"From the second we met, bells went off," she told TV Insider in 2018. "We knew we were going to be a huge force in each other’s lives. He was intense and mercurial but also fun."

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One of Four

"I walked in, saw him, and I went, 'That guy. That's the guy.' It went deep, very fast. We both knew that it was something big," Hargitay recalled in 2021. "I won't say that I fully understood it, but I knew that meeting him was important and life-changing. My father, my husband [Peter Hermann], Dick Wolf and Chris are the four pillar men in my life. And that happened early."

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That Connection

During The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order: SVU in 2020, Hargitay described her relationship with Meloni as one filled with "instantaneous ease, chemistry, trust [and] comfort."

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A Seamless Bond

"[SVU] gave birth to Mariska and Meloni, and Benson and Stabler. We’re kind of inextricably linked and connected in that way. Beyond that, we’re very good friends. I think we value each other," he told Entertainment Tonight in 2020, before explaining what it was like to be back on set together. "We just pick it up right where we left off. ... We just kind of fall seamlessly into that place every time we see each other."

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Like No Other

"We’ve said it’s like we don’t have this relationship with anyone else," Meloni told ET. "It’s unique, it’s full of laughter, she’s full of love."

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Never Gets Old

Hargitay and Meloni walked the red carpet together ahead of the 2022 Emmy Awards. The SVU star told E! News that she's "never once" grown tired of working with the Man of Steel actor.

"I love him, and I've never gotten sick of him," she said of Meloni. However, when asked whether Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler will ever get together, the Emmy Award winner quipped, "You want the tea, baby? Sweetheart, get in line."