She’s known for playing one of the smartest TV detectives of all time in Olivia Benson, but before her “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” fame, Mariska Hargitay had several minor TV roles, including a one-off guest star appearance in “Seinfeld.” Hargitay popped up in the first half of the two-part Season 4 finale “The Pilot” as Melissa Shannon, a sexy actress reading for the part of Elaine in Jerry Seinfeld’s sitcom-within-a-sitcom “Jerry.”
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is a hard-hitting show, but Hargitay started out her career mainly auditioning for comedy roles. On an episode of Amy Poehler’s podcast “Good Hang,” she revealed that she auditioned to play the part of Monica in “Friends,” losing out to Courteney Cox. “I tested for ‘Friends’ so many times,” she said. “I always thought that I would end up being on a sitcom or doing comedy, that’s what I thought.”
A New York psychic predicted her SVU fame
Mariska Hargitay worked on two more sitcoms shortly after her appearance on “Seinfeld,” co-starring in the one-season CBS show “Can’t Hurry Love” and doing three episodes of NBC’s “The Single Guy.” She then landed the role of Cynthia Hooper in “ER,” appearing in 13 episodes during the fourth season of the medical drama as the ditzy girlfriend of Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards). It was after that role came to an end that her life and career would change direction dramatically — and a psychic told her it would happen.
Hargitay was in New York when a friend suggested she pay the psychic in question a visit. She went into detail about the encounter during her appearance on Amy Poehler’s podcast, recalling how the man predicted that she’d move to the Big Apple and become famous. “I said, ‘Uh, no, I live in L.A., and I’m gonna be a comedian because I’m funny, and I’m pretty, and that is a deadly combination.’ And he looks at me — and this is my favorite moment in my life — and he goes like this, ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass what you say.’ Six months later, swear to God, I got ‘SVU.'”