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'SVU' cop busts bad guy stereotype
By Dennis Hunt
USA Today, November 29, 1999
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Looking for someone to play a sociopath or a thug Call Christopher Meloni.  Still tough: Christopher Meloni plays Detective Elliot Stabler and Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson on 'Special Victims Unit.' So how does an actor noted for portraying lowlifes wind up starring as a squeaky-clean cop on NBC's Law & Order spinoff, Special Victims Unit (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET/PT)? Says Dick Wolf, executive producer of both shows: "He projects a lot of strength and a lot of compassion. I knew his work from Oz . . . Cops and prisoners are two sides of the same coin. If you can be convincing as a prisoner, you can be convincing as a cop." Meloni's career is getting a boost from the show's success. SVU has inched into the Nielsen's top 25 despite competition from Ally McBeal, Everybody Loves Raymond and Monday Night Football. "I'm not a bad guy on the show, but I'm a tough guy - like the parts I usually get because I have this tough-guy thing about me," says Meloni, who won't reveal his age - admitting only to being in his late 30s - for fear that producers won't consider him for certain roles. "I don't get called very often to play innocents." That's why he was so surprised to be cast as a wholesome small-town guy - one of Julia Roberts' horde of fianc s - in one of summer's biggest hits, Runaway Bride. "That's light comedy, which I haven't had much of a chance to do," says Meloni, who's had small roles in movies such as Bound and 12 Monkeys. "I had to tap into something different for that role." Meloni would relish opportunities to do that more often. "Like every actor, I'd like a chance to be versatile," says the Washington, D.C. native, who started acting as a lark as a junior at the University of Colorado . But so far, Runaway Bride hasn't opened other light-comedy doors for him. "I admit I haven't gotten a lot of offers," he says. "Could it be the Oz factor?" Though Law & Order: SVU has a much larger audience, Meloni says more people know him from his two seasons as the treacherous prisoner on Oz. But clearly Oz has to take a back seat to SVU , which has the makings of a long-running hit. On Jan. 7, the show moves to Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, finally accommodating executive producer Wolf's lobbying for a more appropriate time slot. Coincidentally, the 10 p.m. slot once belonged to the network's Homicide: Life on the Street, on which Meloni had a guest stint as cocky bounty hunter Dennis Knoll. One of his Homicide co-stars, Richard Belzer, reprises his role as Detective Munch on SVU. "Because of its content, it's really a 10 o'clock show," Wolf says. "But we didn't make any changes in content because we're on at 9 - and NBC never asked us to make any." Is Wolf upset at being assigned to Friday, which traditionally has fewer viewers? "I'm just very happy we're moving," he says. "The Monday time may be perceived to be more flashy, but that Friday time is associated with longevity. I'll take longevity over flash any time." | |