In a 2014 interview, Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay shared the hysterical story of the moment she met her co-star Chris Meloni.
During Season 20 of Inside the Actors Studio, host James Lipton spoke to Hargitay about her acting career. While talking about her time on Law & Order, Lipton brought up her co-star Chris Meloni. The pair have worked together for years and many fans even assume they’re romantically involved. That’s not the case, but their close relationship on and off-set makes fans of the show think otherwise.
The two friends first met during their Law & Order auditions. Hargitay knew one of the other actors trying out for the TV show. When she entered the audition room, the actress shouted out the other actor’s name and threw her arms open to hug him. However, Chris hilariously stepped in and shouted back his own last name, “Meloni!,” before giving her a huge hug. Hargitay and Meloni had never even met before.
“I was already standing up, and so we did this huge hug, and we’d never met,” Hargitay hilariously explains to Lipton. “He has a huge tattoo of Jesus on the cross, and so I said, ‘Oh my gosh, are you a Christian?’ And he’s like, ‘Um, no.” And I said, “Then why do you have that?’ He goes, ‘Just liked his commitment.’ That sort of sums up Meloni.”
The actors each had individual auditions, but then Law & Order showrunners paired Hargitay and Meloni to read together.
“I knew it was done then. It just happened, it was a pairing,” Hargitay said on Inside the Actors Studio.
“The chemistry was there from the beginning,” Lipton chimed in.
“From the first second before we even [auditioned]. You can’t write it,” she said of their immediate bond.
‘Law & Order’ Star Chris Meloni Drops Family Selfie Beneath Fourth of July Fireworks
Fast forward seven years to this holiday weekend, and the Law & Order actor was living it up celebrating the Fourth of July. On Sunday night, Chris Meloni posted a patriotic Independence Day selfie with some of his family members underneath celebratory fireworks. The actor nailed the timing and captured an epic July 4th pic of their fireworks display.
The first photo of the Law & Order star is a selfie with five other people. All six individuals are looking down at the camera, including his son Dante Amadeo Meloni. Chris snapped the perfectly timed selfie as fireworks went off above the group’s heads in the night sky. The actor also jokingly called his companions in the photo “sketchy characters.”
In addition, Meloni posted another picture that featured the important women who are in his life. The photo contains four women, including his wife, Sherman, the married couple’s daughter, Sophia, and the his sister and niece.
“Celebrating americas B Day with sketchy characters and the @sherman.meloni @sophiaemeloni and the other women in my life. #Sis #Niece,” Meloni wrote on Instagram.
