Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni Opened Up About Their Friendship in a Joint Interview

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni haven't worked together on Law & Order: SVU in a decade, but their friendship never faded. And now Meloni is returning to the Law & Order franchise in the upcoming Elliot Stabler–centric spin-off, Law & Order: Organized Crime. In it, he'll resume his character, Detective Elliot Stabler, and Hargitay's character, Captain Olivia Benson, will appear alongside him.

Meloni will also return as Stabler for SVU's season-22 premiere before beginning his own series. “Ring that bell, and you get right into Stabler and Benson,” Meloni told People in a recent joint interview of how he and Hargitay eased back into their dynamic seamlessly. Hargitay added, “There was so much shorthand between us, which all goes back to the trust we have. He's always made me feel like I could just jump off the ledge, the cliff, the bridge, and he would catch me, in so many ways, whether it was comedy or acting or friendship.”

When it comes to their palpable chemistry, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni revealed that it happened naturally. Once they met during their screen test, they were instantly partners—off- and onscreen. “I walked in, saw him, and I went, ‘That guy. That's the guy.’ It went deep, very fast,” Hargitay explained. “We both knew that it was something big. I won't say that I fully understood it, but I knew that meeting him was important and life-changing.”

She added that in addition to her husband, Younger actor Peter Hermann, her late father, Mickey Hargitay, and Law & Order creator, Dick Wolf, Meloni became one of the “four pillar men” in her life. The actors “stayed connected” after Meloni exited the show after contract negotiations fell through.

Meloni attributes their long-lasting friendship to one thing. “It's simple,” he said. “We have each other's back.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour