Mariska Hargitay Delivers Meaningful Acceptance Speech at People's Choice Awards

The actress emphasized 'people' and 'choice' in her speech.

Fan-favorite actress Mariska Hargitay won the award for Drama TV Star of 2022 at the People's Choice Awards, and she used her acceptance speech to deliver a powerful and important message.

The actress was awarded the honor for her work in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which she has been starring in since 1999 as Captain Olivia Benson. 

After being given the coveted trophy, Hargitay began her speech by saying, "What an unbelievable honor this is. I have to say I'm honored for a few reasons, but one of them is because I have such a different and special connection with my people. With my fans. It's such a deep and intimate and personal connection because we all carry so much. Thank you for this."

The 58-year-old actress went on, presenting a meaningful message with her speech, saying, "I love this award so much because of the two words in it. These two very, very important words that make this experience of life so extraordinary. ...'People,' and that's people from all origins, ethnicities, creeds, gender, identities, that make this whole glorious mix of all of us that is the human race...And the second word that's even more important is 'Choice.'"

"So I just want to celebrate our ability in all of us, the willingness in all of us, to choose kindness and compassion and courage and to choose to listen and to learn and to build a bridge between our differences and our divides. That's more important than ever right now," she concluded.

Like her on-screen character, Hargitay is very outspoken about what she believes in. One of the biggest struggles regarding choice that people faced this year was the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, getting rid of the federally-protected right to abortion.

Hargitay spoke out against the Supreme Court's decision when this happened, saying, "Women must have control over what happens to their bodies, and the re-litigation of our rights must end. The insulting, demeaning, negating struggle is not over, and neither is our obligation to do everything we can to protect those whose wounds are deepest in this fight."

The actress' PCAs speech echoed these sentiments, asking people to stand together, and the audience, both in-person and online, loved Hargitay's comments.