Mariska Hargitay says cut Benson and Stabler “SVU ”kiss was shot 'a couple different ways'
Mariska Hargitay says cut Benson and Stabler “SVU ”kiss was shot 'a couple different ways'
Mekishana PierreWed, April 29, 2026 at 3:40 PM UTC
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Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via GettyKey Points -
Mariska Hargitay shares a new tidbit about the infamous near-kiss of Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
"We shot it a couple different ways," Hargitay shares during a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter. "We thought that it was earned and the way it was dealt with was really complex."
The stars have previously said that creator Dick Wolf vetoed the kiss.
The infamous Law & Order: Special Victims Unit kiss that never was between Mariska Hargitay's Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler had been filmed multiple ways before Law & Order franchise creator Dick Wolf vetoed it in totality.
Fans will recall "the kitchen thing," as Meloni calls the brief moment in a season 24 episode of SVU, featured Stabler and Benson, seemingly long-fated for romance, nearly kissing after years of will-they-won't-they tension. Viewers were hyped for the kiss after a teaser for the 2023 episode "Blood Out" showed Benson holding Stabler's face and leaning in for a kiss — but when the episode finally arrived, there was no smooch in sight.
Both Hargitay and Meloni previously revealed that a kiss had been put forward before it was overruled at the 11th hour, but during a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter for its Awards Chatter podcast, Hargitay shared that she and her former costar had actually shot the kiss "a couple different ways."
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'Credit: NBC
"I think we felt that this moment was earned, that this thing could happen for a second — and so that's how we shot it," Hargitay told the outlet in front of a live audience at Napa Valley StreamFest. "Don't you wish you were there for that?! Yeah. We shot it a couple different ways. And then they [Wolf and others] had the choice in editing, and they [opted to use the near-kiss version rather than the kiss]."
Hargitay confessed that she and Meloni disagreed with the decision to scrap the kiss because "we thought that it was earned and the way it was dealt with was really complex and very beautiful and very human and showed the complexity of their relationship and all the different ways that they're connected."
"[But] no matter what I want, Dick Wolf can totally just say, 'Uh, no,'" the actress lamented.
When questioned if Meloni would return to SVU after the cancellation of his spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime, Hargitay reasonably pointed out that the actor will be working on his upcoming series, Hulu's football drama The Land.
"Chris has his own show now. At some point? I mean, anything's possible," she told THR. "Yes. The answer to that is he and I are not ... it's not done. It's not dun-dun [the L&O sound] — see what I did there?"
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In "Blood Out" — an official crossover between SVU, from which Meloni left in 2011, and Organized Crime, which premiered in 2021 and was recently canceled after five seasons — Benson and Stabler get closer than ever to consummating the relationship so yearned for by fans that it's been given its own name: Bensler.
"I care for you," Stabler tells Benson, after a typically action-packed, emotionally draining mission. The pair draw close, embrace, and nearly kiss, but Benson pulls away, whispering, "Elliot, I want to. But I can't."
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni on 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC
During an interview with TVLine Spotlight conversation in 2025, Meloni echoed Hargitay's sentiment about not having the power to go with their version against Wolf's say-so.
"I don't go, 'That's what's going to go on TV. That's what we're going to air.' We don't have that power. We do the best we can to be honest with the scenes we're given," Meloni explained, emphasizing that his and Hargitay's goal is always to "make it honest, not make it bait. If we do bait, at least for me, I always do it with a wink. I think it's good-natured, but maybe you guys are over that, and that's valid. But you give us too much credit for the power that we might have — will-they-won't-they and all that stuff."
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At least fans can rest assured that they aren't the only ones confounded by the slow burn of the Benson-Stabler relationship. Fellow SVU star Ice-T expressed his own shock during a recent Entertainment Weekly digital cover shoot.
"Y'all haven't hooked up yet at all?" SVU star Ice-T asked Hargitay during EW's digital cover shoot in 2024. "Close, right? Almost a kiss?" Hargitay joked back, "No, just two times in season 4!... No. We have not hooked up."
Ice-T quipped. "Season 26."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
