“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star Mariska Hargitay is no stranger to injuries. The performer notably hurt her ankle ahead of the procedural’s 23rd season in 2021, with the medical setback resulting from an unfortunate accident in Hargitay’s personal life. That said, the actor — who plays Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: SVU” and other series in the extended franchise — also hurt herself on the set of NBC’s long-running crime drama before, as she ended up with a collapsed lung following a botched stunt in the fall of 2008.
“I was doing a stunt chasing a bad guy. I’d always insisted on doing the stunts my own way, although I don’t feel so strongly about that anymore. I jumped and landed on pads, but on the second take, something happened — I just landed wrong,” Hargitay recalled in an interview with Redbook. “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.”
Hargitay added that ended up getting surgery months later and returning to work in March 2009, only for her lung to collapse again — a setback that statistically only happens to one in every 1,000 people, according to Hargitay. From that moment on, she decided to change her approach to action sequences.
Mariska Hargitay’s Law & Order injury led to her using stunt performers
Mariska Hargitay’s on-set injury was a wake-up call for the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” star. In the aforementioned interview with Redbook, the Olivia Benson actor noted that she’d recently had a child at the time, and becoming a parent made her realize how fragile and finite life can be. Since then, Hargitay has let her stunt doubles handle the more high-octane chase sequences.
That said, the negative experience wasn’t all bad for Hargitay. During her conversation with Redbook, she also noted that she took lessons from the injury that enabled her to have a positive outlook in the long run. “I think you learn to feel grateful when you are exposed at such a young age to the fact that bad things can happen,” she said. “I look at all the things life has allowed me to do and I feel like the luckiest person in the world.”
