Ready for Emmy
Virginai Rohan
New Jersey Media, August 23, 2006
Christopher Meloni was water skiing at his lake house outside New York City when he got word of his long-overdue Emmy nomination for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." This wasn't just the television academy's first acknowledgment of his outstanding work as Detective Elliot Stabler, a role he had played for seven seasons. This was the first Emmy nomination ever for Meloni, who made his TV-series debut (in the HBO comedy "1st & Ten") in 1989. To add perspective, that's the year President Reagan left the Oval Office.

So why did the actor sound so blase in interviews right after the Emmy announcement?

"I guess I was focused on my day," says Meloni on the telephone last week. "It took me about three weeks to finally download it. It was an accumulation of all my friends slapping me in the face, saying, 'This is public recognition. This is important.' And I said, 'You're right. I've got it.'

"It's funny: I never meant to be disrespectful or dismissive of the honor. I'm just kind of happy with how my life was going. Now that I've had a little time to reflect ... I'm surrounded by great, highly excitable people, and they got me really fired up. Now I'm like, 'This is really cool.' I'm really excited about the whole shenanigans and hoopla. Say what you will about Hollywood and its awards ceremonies; they do know how to throw a party."

Conan the cutup

The big bash begins at 8 tonight on NBC, and Conan O'Brien will once again host -- a choice Meloni applauds.

"He does a great job, always," says Meloni, who made a fun appearance on O'Brien's "Late Night" recently. "I've seen him as emcee at NBC events, and he's crushing. He really brings the house down. He's so sharp, so off the cuff."

Nominated in the lead actor in a drama category, Meloni is in fine company. His fellow contenders include Kiefer Sutherland ("24"), Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under"), Martin Sheen ("The West Wing") and Denis Leary ("Rescue Me") -- also a first-time acting nominee and considered to be the front-runner.

Though some critics have questioned how Meloni wound up a nominee while perennial favorite James Gandolfini and hot commodity Hugh Laurie did not, those who faithfully watch "SVU" have a different question: Why did it take so long to recognize Meloni?

"SVU" executive producer Neal Baer attributes the correction of this oversight to this year's controversial rules change. In the past, all 14,000 members of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences cast votes, and the five contenders who got the most became the nominees. But this year, the net widened to the top 10 contenders in the best-drama and comedy-series categories -- and the top 15 vote-getters for best dramatic and comedic actors. A panel of academy members then evaluated their work and chose the nominees.

"The rules changed, and so it wasn't strictly a popularity contest," Baer says. "If you have to think of 15 actors, that widens the field. ... The race is much broader. And then when you get the tapes and watch them. ... "

Lead actors submit one episode for Emmy consideration. Meloni's was "Ripped," in which Stabler had to confront his own rage while working on an investigation of a teenage baseball star who claimed steroids led him to attack a friend brutally. The suspect turned out to be the son of his former detective partner (Noah Emmerich). After getting suspended for making unprofessional choices in an attempt to protect the suspect, Stabler turned to psychiatrist Rebecca Hendrix (Mary Stuart Masterson), who had worked with him on cases, for help. Their wrenching session produced painful revelations about Stabler's childhood.

Spotlight moment

"It was my great big scene, and, yes, there were tears," Meloni says, chuckling. "I thought it was special in that the scene takes up one full act, the whole third act, a 12-minute scene. I thought, I'm doing a one-act play right here. When you have to sustain a scene for 12 minutes, it better have a lot of peaks and valleys. And the stuff was here in the script. I went back to my roots of looking at a scene, breaking it down. I was very pleased to do it."

Meloni acknowledges that it's more difficult for an actor to strut his stuff on a show that's propelled by either the crime story or the procedure. On "SVU," details about the characters bleed out only occasionally, and in small doses.

Baer says "Ripped" was specifically designed not only to showcase Meloni's talent but to shake up the series' format.

"We took a lot of chances in that episode," Baer says. "I always feel, Why not do something unexpected in 'SVU'? It's in its seventh season, and we don't want it to be predictable."

As for why Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective Olivia Benson, Stabler's partner, received her third best actress Emmy nomination this year and Meloni only now received his first nod, Baer says, "Not to take anything away from Mariska, but unfortunately, there aren't as many great parts on television for women, whereas for men, the list gets a bit longer. I think there are more male leads than female leads."

Meloni -- who began his network-television career in 1990 on the short-lived comedy "The Fanelli Boys"-- had grown used to being snubbed by the Emmys. His brave performance as Chris Keller, a charismatic sexual predator on Tom Fontana's HBO series "Oz," won critical raves but no kudos from the Emmy committee.

"I guess the disappointment was sharp but momentary, because I've always felt like an underdog," Meloni says. "I thought I'd get a look for the work I did on 'Oz.' I don't know how these things go. It wasn't just me. I felt [the show] was actively being ignored. Even to this day, I still think, every time I see the HBO 'Groundbreaking' [ads], my first thought is, That's Tom Fontana. Tom Fontana was groundbreaking. And God bless HBO for putting it on. And then 'The Sopranos' came along. Not to take anything away from them; it's one of the few things I do watch on TV, but. ..."

He pauses.

"Oz" had blazed the trail?

"Exactly," Meloni says.

During his break from "SVU" this year, the actor did a not-yet-titled movie for Spanish filmmaking brothers Alex and David Pastor. ("I played a father whose daughter's dying of a pandemic," Meloni says. "I have one last hope at a serum.")

Bumpy road ahead?

As for the new "SVU" season, Baer says there are eight episodes in the can, which the cast shot before going on hiatus. In six of those episodes, Connie Nielsen steps in for Hargitay, who left on maternity leave and gave birth to a son in June. Meloni and the gang are slated to return to the series' North Bergen set in October.

What's up in the new season?

Baer says there may be "something romantic for Stabler" and that there will be a "major, major revelation about Benson this year."

Meloni's take: "We've got Connie Nielsen in there as my partner. Once that has settled, when she's done her time with us, I think it's going to be [about] trying to reestablish a comfortable relationship between my character and Mariska's. It got a little bit dinged up, a little wounded. I think Stabler's going to come back a better, more fully focused person, maybe more Zen-like."

"SVU" fans may not be able to picture the quick-fused Stabler as Zen-like.

Meloni laughs and says, "Neither can I."

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