Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T talk SVU’s most memorable guest stars (and who they still want)

The stars of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit have a “list,” and they’re checking it twice — when it comes to the show’s possible guest stars, that is.
“All my friends call me! A lot of my friends in the music industry want to be on the show, [so] I put their name in the hat with our casting director, and if it comes, it comes,” says Ice-T. “But it’s always fun when you can do that, get somebody on the show that wants to be on the show.”
Just take Snoop Dogg, for example, who appeared on SVU in season 20 after binge-watching the show and calling Ice-T.

 

“[Snoop’s] like, ‘Yo, cuz. Let me tell you, I ain’t going to lie to you, Ice. I ain’t never watched your show. Yo, homie, me and wifey watched that thing for like 24 hours, man.’ I was like, ‘So what are you saying? You want to be on the show? Let me put your name in the hat,’” Ice-T recalls of his conversation with the fellow rapper and actor. “Like in the next three episodes, they had Snoop on, and we had a great time.”]
New York’s seemingly endless supply of talented theater performers also lend themselves to SVU — which amuses Ice-T to no end.

“I interrogated SpongeBob off of Broadway, Aladdin, the Genie!” he says. “Whenever I meet people on the show, I’m like, ‘Are you on Broadway? Can you sing?’ And you never know.”
Mariska Hargitay, meanwhile, says there are “a million people” she’d love to welcome onto her NBC procedural, including “anybody on Succession.” To help celebrate season 25, however, SVU will actually be welcoming back some guests from seasons past.
“We have two characters now [this season] that were guest stars before,” Hargitay teases, “and now they’re going to come and do arcs.”
Succession cast aside, Hargitay has high hopes for getting longtime pal Ali Wentworth back in front of the camera. (Hargitay’s other close friend, Brooke Shields, appeared on the show for an arc in season 19.)