How Law & Order: SVU Fandom Bullied A Long-Term Regular Actress Into Tears 

Every time the show gets very big and popular, it gets a very powerful fanbase.

Usually this isn't a bad thing, as the fans are on the same side as the cast and crew, fighting for more budgets, more screen time, and more recognition. However, it's not uncommon for fans to overstep their bounds.

Unfortunately, this has become even more common in the age of the Internet. As the various social media platforms have become more prevalent over the years, more and more people have found comfort in sharing what's on their minds.

However, not everyone seems to understand that the anonymity that comes with the Internet doesn't give you permission to be a bully.

While some celebrities deliberately avoid social media, knowing that the heat won't be good for their mental health, others just can't help their curiosity. Isabel Gillies, who played Kathy Stabler on Law & Order: SVU for 12 years and then returned to screens 10 years later, wanted to see people's reactions to her, too.

What the actress wasn't prepared for was the blatant disrespect she and her character received. In fact, some of the comments left all over social media were so harsh that they forced Gillies to burst into tears.

“My feed, which is normally pretty sleepy, a retweeted article here, a few shoutouts about a recipe there, was a stream of eye-popping-bile posts, at me! My character, the deceased Kathy Stabler, was trending on Twitter. Gliding over links and threads, memes and emojis, I started, well, crying,” Isabel Gillies wrote in her blogpost.

The nasty comments about her character were so aggressive and vague at times, the actress couldn’t help but take them close to heart.

She was able to overcome the stress of it all by discussing the situation with her co-star Mariska Hargitay, but the deep feeling of being completely rejected by the fandom must’ve stayed with the actress for a long time.

If you want to go back to the first seasons of Law & Order: SVU to remind yourself of Kathy Stabler’s arc, you can stream the show on Hulu or Peacock Premium. Be sure to keep the conversation nice, though! The internet is already negative enough, and there’s no need to make it worse for anybody.

Source: Isabel’s Newsletter