“The best thing you can give an actor is that opportunity, and they give you the tools to create.” “They write characters that allow their actors to stretch, then give them the environment to do that,” says Elizabeth Mitchell, who is being submitted this year for her work opposite Jeremy Irons. Instead, the roles themselves are the appeal. For me, it would be genius because I would join a select group of people who had an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony.” But in some other way, the psyche recognizes that, yeah, this actor does great performances. “I think these things are won and then forgotten. “I don’t know what effect any of these things have on your career at the end of the day,” Harden says. Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden was nominated in 2007 and may be up again this year for the same recurring character, but she doesn’t think even a victory would have much of an effect professionally. Selling the streak may bring ‘em in, but not necessarily because they’re expecting an Emmy. “He said, ‘Oh, by the way, this is a pretty good track record we have.’” “Neal mentioned it as part of the pitch,” she recalls. Lahti appeared in several “SVU” episodes this past season as a drunken prosecutor and has been submitted by the show for nomination consideration. The slew of Emmy wins is a small part of Baer’s pitch to actresses - at least it was in Christine Lahti’s case. “Everybody uses famous guest stars now, but I think ‘SVU’ has been a pioneer in this regard,” says Susan Green, co-author (with this writer) of “The ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Unofficial Companion.” “There’s only so much angst the regular stars can have - how many times can Mariska melt down or Chris have an anger issue? And it’s great for publicity there’s a curiosity that comes with a million fans from yesteryear.”
Once you get a couple of notable people, then others want to join.” “People ask, ‘How do you get those people?’ and the answer is, ‘Well, we pitched ideas,’” Baer says. The canny move of bringing on a beloved - if somewhat undervalued or retiring - actress and giving her a role she can sink her teeth into on a short-term basis has proved to be catnip for a number of otherwise TV-shy names. Those past winners: Amanda Plummer (2005), Leslie Caron (2007), Cynthia Nixon (2008), Burstyn (2009) and Ann-Margret (2010) may not all be eligible for AARP membership, but they’re no ingénues either.
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In some ways the victories have set the tone for how the series has been aging. It’s a nice streak for a show that, after 12 years on the air, largely passes under the radar. Show runner Baer has had a knack for pairing guest actresses and Emmys: Since 2005, the show has won every trophy in the category, save for 2006 - the year that star Mariska Hargitay won for lead actress in a drama. “We agreed that if I liked the script, we’d do it.”Īnother successful match achieved: Burstyn won her only Emmy - for outstanding guest actress in a drama series - for the role.īut Burstyn’s win is no outlier.
“I’d never had anybody say they wanted to write a script for me,” Burstyn recalls. We told her about the part, and I said, ‘You’ll be on a beach and flip out,’ and she said, ‘Down and dirty?’ and I said, ‘As down and dirty as you like.’”
So began Neal Baer’s wooing of the Oscar-winning Burstyn to the set of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” “We had lunch with her,” he continues, “and it was kind of a date. “We were writing a story for Chris Meloni’s character’s mother, and she was going to be bipolar.