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A Twitter DM led to her ‘SVU’ role. Now Betty Buckley’s episode idea is a reality

Buckley thought of the story idea last season and says the show’s star, Mariska Hargitay, encouraged her to pitch it.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 24
Betty Buckley says she's "especially excited" about this episode for her character, Trial Division Chief Lorraine Maxwell, because she's the one who pitched this story idea.Scott Gries / NBC
/ Source: TODAY

It’s no easy feat to return to the same workplace after over a decade away — and in a greater role. But “Law & Order: SVU” star Betty Buckley has done just that and much more.

The Tony Award-winning actor, who’s already well established outside of “SVU” for her work on Broadway and beyond (calling all “Eight Is Enough” fans), first guest-starred on the police procedural in the 2000s as a defense attorney. In late 2021, she returned to the show in quite the position of power — as Trial Division Chief Lorraine Maxwell. Since then, her recurring character has had a hand in many powerful cases and shared the screen for some intense scenes with the show’s star, Mariska Hargitay, who’s portrayed Olivia Benson since the show’s debut in 1999.

Buckley’s Maxwell is front and center in the April 27 episode, “Bend The Law,” when her husband, Roger Briggs, who’s played by Tom Irwin, becomes a person of interest in an investigation led by Capt. Benson’s team. The case becomes further complicated for the squad’s ADA, Dominick Carisi (Peter Scanavino), since Maxwell is his boss.

“Bend The Law” begins with Maxwell and her husband celebrating their anniversary. Not long after, Roger is rounded up by the police with other men from a members-only club who were caught with 15-year-old girls. While Roger wasn’t in the room with the girls, it becomes apparent that he’s involved in the group’s wrongdoing. Initially, Maxwell believes Roger’s innocent, but she eventually comes to terms with her husband’s participation in the horrific scheme, which involves underage girls receiving forms of payment from some of the men in exchange for sexual favors. Eventually, the detectives find nude photos of the underage girls in Roger’s locker at the club.

The episode ends on a shocking note for Maxwell and her husband, whose relationship deteriorates as quickly as Roger’s innocence over the course of the episode. Maxwell returns to a dimly lit home to Roger sitting at the table fulfilling his promise of an anniversary dinner. Roger then horribly insults Maxwell, referencing her abusive first husband.

“Your ex-husband was right — the way he kept you in line, humiliated you,” he says. “I think you deserved it. You’re such a castrating b----.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Roger immediately begins choking. Maxwell stands on the other side of the room watching him and has a choice as Roger signals for help: Does she immediately try to assist him or … not? She chooses the latter and waits to call 911 until after Roger appears to be dead on the ground.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 24
After pitching the idea for the episode, Buckley says she was “concerned as to who they might cast” as her husband. “When I found out it was Tom, I was hugely relieved and really excited to work with him,” she says about guest star Tom Irwin.Scott Gries / NBC

Buckley recently caught up with TODAY.com to discuss filming that jaw-dropping scene and much more about her time with “SVU.” Buckley says she pitched this story idea for her character to “SVU” showrunner David Graziano and head writer and executive producer Julie Martin.

“They really liked the idea,” Buckley explains, adding she was “especially excited” to see the episode.

Buckley says she came up with the idea last season and “wrote to Mariska about it.”

“I said, ‘Do you like this idea?’ It was just a sketch. And she said, ‘Yes, yes, I do. Go ahead and pitch it,’” Buckley recalls.

Eventually, Buckley pitched her idea to Graziano and Martin over Zoom.

“I was really excited,” she says.

The idea for the unsettling final scene between Maxwell and her husband, however, didn’t come from Buckley.

When the details of that scene were introduced in the Zoom meeting, Buckley says she was “a little taken aback.”

“I hadn’t thought of that for my character,” she explains about Maxwell letting her husband die, and notes, “It was a strange day of shooting.”

She credits the episode’s “wonderful” director, Martha Mitchell, for understanding her feelings “about the whole thing” and “shepherding” her through the scene.

“But given that he was this ridiculous pedophile person, I kind of felt justified,” Buckley adds.

“Martha and I talked a lot about, where does she change? Where does she stop defending him in her heart? And where does she let him go?” she says.

“I was really concerned about that trajectory because Maxwell is such a decent, good person,” Buckley continues. “So I was very concerned as the actress to protect her integrity, and Martha felt the same way.”

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Season 24
Like Buckley, Irwin has previously guest-starred on “SVU” as another character.Scott Gries / NBC

“I mean it’s brilliant filmmaking on an American television show for so long,” she says about the longevity of “SVU,” which was recently renewed for a 25th season.

Someone on “SVU” who’s already familiar with the show’s “brilliant filmmaking” both in front of and behind the camera is Hargitay, who recently directed the Season 24 episode “King of the Moon,” which guest-starred Bradley Whitford.

“I want to do an episode where she directs it because she’s a brilliant director, too,” Buckley says of Hargitay, whom she also refers to as Wonder Woman, “the heart of the show” and “the glue of the show.”

Buckley’s and Hargitay’s characters have shared a few emotionally charged moments. In their last scene together during Season 24’s fourth episode, “The Steps We Cannot Take,” Maxwell agrees with Benson to stop pursuing an especially difficult case and warns her: “Justice may be blind, but she’s not entirely heartless. And you’ll see how heartless I can be should this conversation ever come back to haunt me.”

At the end of “Bend The Law,” Maxwell and Benson essentially mirror that scene. The two are again outside at a table but in opposite seats this time.

Benson asks Maxwell if she was able to help Roger while he was choking, to which Maxwell responds she “tried” but there was nothing she could do. Then Maxwell asks Benson if she checked the call log.

Despite everything, Maxwell says she loved her husband and notes the timing of his death is convenient given his recent legal troubles, before asking Benson if she believes her.

“Whether I do or not, there’s no proof to the contrary,” Benson responds.

“So just another one of our stalemates?” Maxwell says.

Benson points out there still has to be an investigation and reassures Maxwell she’d be the first to know if something came of it.

When Maxwell asks if they have “an understanding,” Benson essentially repeats back Maxwell’s lines from “The Steps We Cannot Take” word-for-word about justice being blind.

Buckley notes that sequence was the result of “smart writing.”

“It’s very well written and a very well-structured episode,” she adds, before noting she loved how the “moral issues” in her character’s storyline mirrored the ones in the episode’s other storyline with Octavio Pisano’s Detective Joe Velasco.

“The thing that’s amazing about ‘SVU’ is that for 24 years, they just turn out great story after great story after great story,” Buckley says.

As for her thoughts on working with Hargitay, she says, “like everybody else in America,” she’s “Mariska’s fangirl.”

“Being with her, we have a very natural chemistry, and it just makes me feel really good to be in her presence,” Buckley explains about working with Hargitay.

“I think she’s America’s darling, and she’s such an incredible human being,” she adds.

It’s safe to say Hargitay feels the same way about Buckley. Hargitay recently shared a video of herself on Instagram singing Linda Ronstadt’s 1977 hit, “Blue Bayou,” to Buckley.

“I sang one of my favorite songs in front of @blbuckley!!!!” she wrote. “Took me about four months to get the nerve up.”

Buckley recalls her reaction to the sweet serenade, laughing, and says over the past year Hargitay kept telling her she wants to have a voice lesson with her.

“I teach song interpretation. … Each time I’ve been on the show, she’ll say something about ‘Blue Bayou’ and sing a little bit, and it’s got that real high section,” Buckley explains. “So I’ve been giving her little pointers along the way of how to hit those notes without worrying about it.”

Then, Buckley says one day Hargitay “just popped up” with one of the show’s production assistants to perform the song.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ It was just between takes. … Yeah, she did it great, and they both did. It was really fun.”

Also on hand for the impromptu performance was Peter Scanavino.

Buckley describes Scanavino as “a joyous person.”

“He’s a very funny guy, and he has this vast knowledge of music,” she says. “He’s always coming to set when I’m there, and he’ll send me texts of pieces of music or a song.”

“They’re adorable people,” Buckley says of the entire “SVU” cast. “I don’t know how they work as hard as they do — as many episodes as they do.”

Buckley referenced her long run on the 1970s sitcom “Eight Is Enough.” And while long days on set can be difficult, she says the “SVU” team is full of “really terrific people.”

Buckley also had the chance to cross paths with some of the original cast and crew members during her guest appearances as a defense attorney in the 2000s.

One of those connections, with former showrunner and writer Warren Leight, led to her current recurring role on “SVU.”

She says the two follow each other on Twitter, and the role came about during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were beginning to return to work.

“I sent him a private message saying if there’s a role on ‘SVU’ that I could do, I sure would like to come back,” Buckley says.

After a few weeks, she says he wrote back to her.

“He said, ‘You want to be Carisi’s boss?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!’ and he wrote me into the show with this character. It was such a gift.”

“It’s just an honor to get to be there, and I look forward to it,” Buckley says about her time with “SVU.”  “Every time they call me for a show, I’m just thrilled. I love them all.”

“Law & Order: SVU” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, after “Law & Order” at 8 p.m. and before “Law & Order: Organized Crime” at 10 p.m.