SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Stopped Performing Her Own Stunts After This Near-Death Accident
Sometimes it’s better to let stunt performers do their job.
It's not uncommon for actors to insist on doing their own stunts on film sets, as it adds a challenging aspect to their daily lives and reduces the cost of stunt performers from a production standpoint. However, sometimes there are risks that are not worth taking, and health is one of them.
TV star Mariska Hargitay, known to audiences for her brilliant portrayal of one of the toughest characters around, Olivia Benson from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, was the one doing her own stunts.
If you've seen at least a few episodes, you know that Benson always puts herself at the forefront of every case, so there were a lot of tricky scenes that required stunts. Unfortunately, one of those scenes resulted in a trauma that could have been fatal for the actress. Instead, it only caused Hargitay to retire from all physical stunts.
The actress recalled the events in an interview with Redbook. She recalled landing on a special pad after one of the falls and immediately feeling a sharp pain in her chest:
“I got up and felt that something inside was not quite right. At first, I thought I had the wind knocked out of me. I was angry with myself. Later, I thought maybe I'd pulled a muscle, but I didn't focus on the injury and kept expecting it to get better. <...> I didn't know for three months that something was really wrong,” Hargitay said.
With a family history of heart disease, Hargitay was initially afraid it was a heart attack. However, as she later found out at the doctor's office, one of her lungs had collapsed by 50%, which was causing such excruciating pain. Unfortunately, the actress had to undergo surgery, but the lung collapsed again within a few months.
After the lung was completely repaired and no longer caused any problems, the actress returned to the set of SVU. The lesson of not insisting on doing her own stunts was learned once and for all.
Fortunately, the incident was resolved without any major problems, and viewers can still enjoy Mariska Hartgitay's performance in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to this day. The show has been renewed for its 25th season, so be sure to follow the news to make sure you do not miss a release date!
Source: Redbook