Mariska Hargitay is riding high right now — selling out her Broadway debut Every Brilliant Thing (she replaced Daniel Radcliffe in the role), watching her beloved Knicks take the NBA crown after 53 years and continuing to star in TV’s longest-running drama, Law & Order: SVU, playing the longest-running character in it and winning an Emmy and Golden Globe for doing it. She also’s still reaping the rewards of the documentary, the very personal documentary she made about her mother Jayne Mansfield — the famous movie star of the 1950s and ’60s — in My Mom Jayne.
The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and then started running a year ago on HBO Max, where there now is serious Emmy buzz. Already a winner at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and landing the docu prize from the Producers Guild of America, among other honors, this film is not merely a biodoc on Mansfield — who died at age 34 in a horrific auto accident — but also the journey of Hargitay, only 3 when she and her siblings survived that same accident and who never really got to know her mother. Making this film was the way to do that, and in the process she discovered more than you can possibly imagine.
This isn’t her first time in the docu world, having also co-produced the News And Documentary Emmy-winning HBO film I Am Evidence. It is also not her first time behind the camera, as she has directed several episodes of Law & Order: SVU over the years, but this is her feature docu directorial debut.
Hargitay joins me for this episode of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens to talk about why she decided now was the time to take this on, getting her siblings on board to do interviews, the discoveries she made going through her mother’s vast archives, and why it was important to open the film with her first TV appearance ever, on the couch with mom, her brother and sister, and Merv Griffin in a scene stealing guest shot. And there is also the life-changing shocking personal discovery she made on this journey as well. We also talk about playing Olivia Benson for nearly three decades, her Broadway debut, and so much more.
To watch our conversation and to go ‘behind the lens’ with Mariska Hargitay just click the link above.
Join me this season every Monday and Friday for a new Behind The Lens, and every Tuesday and Thursday for a new episode of The Actor’s Side.
