
movies
Mariska Hargitay Says Chris Meloni SVU Kiss Filmed, More in Interview
Mariska Hargitay, one of TV’s most beloved stars (she’s played Olivia Benson on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for 27 seasons, longer than anyone else has played a single character on an American primetime live-action show) and one of film’s most exciting new directors (her debut documentary My Mom Jayne won Critics Choice and Producers Guild awards), is the guest on the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded in front of an audience at the just-wrapped Napa Valley StreamFest.
As you can hear via the audio player above or any major podcast app, and as you can read below in excerpts lightly edited for clarity and brevity, the 62-year-old Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner reflected on the 1967 car accident that claimed the life of her mother, movie star Jayne Mansfield, and injured her; how, when she was 34, the age at which Mansfield died, she too almost lost her life in a road accident, and how surviving that changed her outlook on life; and why, starting during the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to make a film about her mom — and also ended up divulging long-held secrets about her father.
She also revealed juicy information about SVU, including that she has been asked to direct the show’s upcoming 600th episode, and that, back during the making of the show’s 24th season, she and costar Chris Meloni — whose characters audiences have long wanted to hook-up — did indeed film a scene in which their characters kissed, only to have Dick Wolf veto it in favor of the near-kiss that made it to air.
On the accident that claimed the life of her mother, Jayne Mansfield…
“I certainly don’t remember the accident. And as I say in the film, I don’t know that I remember my mother — the two memories that I have, I don’t know if they’re real memories or they’re things that I wished happened or possibly a photograph that I saw. So that’s hard. But as we know, the kind of trauma that I endured certainly stays in the body and gets stuck until we work it out and we deal with it. I had a lot of PTSD as a child and a lot of anxiety from that, and there would be things that would trigger it. I didn’t really have anything to compare it to because I was a kid, but it lived in me … And so, through the therapy I’ve done, and through making [My Mom Jayne], it’s been extraordinary to experience so much healing in the process of storytelling but also to have so much internal space back. And that’s the best way I can describe it is that when that kind of stuff leaves your body, your nervous system settles and you become a different person.”
On people telling her, early in her career, that she needed to change things about herself…
“So many people told me to change things about myself. My first and favorite one was I walked into an audition at a network, and I met with the head of casting, the head of talent, and he said, ‘Oh, I was expecting a blonde.’ And I went, ‘Well, sorry!’ And then he proceeded to ask me what my real name was, which is funny. I said, ‘Do you think that I made this up? If I was going to make up a name, I don’t know that it would be Mariska Hargitay,’ which by the way, no one can say. It should have been ‘Mariska Hardtosay.’ And then it was just a lot of, ‘You should get a nose job. You should do this. Have you ever thought about that? You’re too this, you’re too that.’ You just hear you’re too everything. ‘You’re too short. You’re too tall. You’re too ethnic. You’re too plain. You’re too pretty. You’re not pretty.’ You just hear it all. At the end of the day, you’re like, ‘Whatever.’”
On almost losing her life at 34, the same age at which one of her grandmothers and her mother died…
“I was on a motorcycle, which I never ride on. I was riding on the back. I had been invited to Cirque du Soleil in Vegas, and my godson was coming. [The others in her group who were making the trip from L.A.] were a bunch of cool motorcycle people. I said, ‘I’ll only go if I can drive the child.’ So I drove the child in my car, and then two hours in they said, ‘Mariska, come on. Don’t be tight. Just get on the motorcycle.’ And, of course, I put on a good jacket and I said, “Okay, but just for a mile.” I got on the motorcycle, and we stopped at a stop sign, and the car behind me was [distracted and then realized they were about to hit us] and they tried to veer off, but there was a telephone pole, so they veered off, and then they went back and hit our motorcycle. We were stopped, so the driver went flying and I went flying. The driver broke his femur in three places and his tibia and his fibula and was in a cast. I thought I was dying as I was going through the air. That was my thought, like, ‘Oh, I’m 34. My mother was 34. She was in a car. I just got hit by a car. Wow, I didn’t know it was going to go like this.’ It was very slow-mo. And then I landed — and I was fine… my ankle blew up like a grapefruit, but it was not even fractured… When your mother dies at 34 and your grandmother dies at 34, you think you’re going to die at 34. And so that was the moment when I went, ‘Oh, I’m not my mother, and I don’t have that karmic curse, or whatever it was.’ I very much went, ‘Oh, I have a whole different trajectory that I’m doing.’”

Mariska Hargitay on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Michael Parmelee/NBC
On playing Olivia Benson on SVU for 27 years and counting…
“It’s been beautiful because there’s been kind of a parallel growth with my character, Olivia Benson, and Mariska, and we had each other to go through this together — becoming a leader, finding the equilibrium in that, becoming a mother on the show and having to manage my people, my squad, when we used to be even, and then all of a sudden you’re the boss … And I think I am a different actor after My Mom Jayne. That’s just a fact.”
On directing SVU’s upcoming 600th episode…
“They just asked me to direct the 600th! Which is episode six next year. It’s crazy. Even I can’t download it. Even I go, ‘Wait, what?!’ No, it’s nuts.”
On people who do cable or streaming shows…
“I go, how many episodes do you do? They go, ‘eight’ and ‘10.’ And I go like this, ‘Sweetheart, don’t talk to me! You don’t know what endurance is. Run a marathon, then call me.’ No, but it’s child’s play — I said it, and I’ll say it again, it’s child’s play. It’s been 22 episodes for 27 years [on SVU]. I think this year we did 21 — I got one off.”
On she and Chris Meloni disagreeing with Dick Wolf about the season 24 scene in which Benson and Stabler nearly kiss but don’t — and revealing that they shot a different version…
“I think we felt that this moment was earned, that this thing could happen for a second — and so that’s how we shot it. [audience goes crazy] Don’t you wish you were there for that?! Yeah. We shot it a couple different ways. And then they [Wolf and others] had the choice in editing, and they [opted to use the near-kiss version rather than the kiss] … We [she and Meloni] disagreed. We disagreed because we thought that it was earned and the way it was dealt with was really complex and very beautiful and very human and showed the complexity of their relationship and all the different ways that they’re connected … [But] no matter what I want, Dick Wolf can totally just say, ‘Uh, no.’”
On whether or not Meloni, whose L&O spinoff was just canceled, could come back to SVU…
“Chris has his own show now [Hulu’s upcoming The Land]. At some point? I mean, anything’s possible. Yes. The answer to that is he and I are not … it’s not done. It’s not dun-dun [the L&O sound] — see what I did there?”

Mariska Hargitay in My Mom Jayne.
Courtesy of HBO
On why she decided to make My Mom Jayne…
“I set out a movie to get to know my mother and to find out why the choices that were made [by her in her career] were made … So much of what I thought, I was wrong about, and there was so much healing that came out of it, because I actually was curious and got to understand the other side of it … One of the things I talk about in the film is, it was very difficult for me as a child to hear my mother’s voice — this high-pitched sex symbol voice was so painful and embarrassing and stressful because, as a child, you just want your mom, you just want authenticity and you just want to feel safe … [But through the documentary] I got to see the private voice. I saw this woman in her public voice in her career that she architected by herself at 21 and then got to hear her voice with her kids and all these moments where she dropped down. I went, ‘Ah, there you are. There you are.’ … There was so much healing and love and so many aha moments and so much bonding with my siblings and so much light being shed… It was just one of the greatest, most cathartic, healing experiences of my life.”
On the photo of Sophia Loren side-eyeing her mom’s cleavage…
“I used to be really embarrassed about it. And now I go, ‘You go, girl.’”
On what her mom would have made of My Mom Jayne…
“I think she would be so proud of me and so grateful to be introduced to the world for the amazing, complex woman and beautiful artist that she was. I don’t think my mom got to make the kind of movies and the kind of art that she wanted to make. We didn’t have the opportunity to make a movie together — and yet we made one together.”

Jayne Mansfield and Mariska Hargitay in My Mom Jayne.
Alamy Stock Photo/HBO
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movies
Disney Unveils Oasis Doc Premiere Date Of October 9
Disney has unveiled premiere date for Steven Knight’s Oasis documentary on Disney+ and Hulu.
The feature will land on October 9, just two weeks after tickets to Oasis’ next round of tour dates were snapped up, including some shows in the U.S.
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger has already had a theatrical run where it became the UK’s highest-grossing documentary feature film of 2026. Described as an “unapologetically uplifting account of the biggest musical event of 2025,” Knight’s movie charts Liam and Noel Gallagher’s reunion tour, Oasis Live ‘25, which was one of the most anticipated rock ‘n’ roll comebacks in years.
The film from Magna Studios and directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace features material from a rare joint interview between the Gallaghers, along with plenty of coverage of the sold-out concerts. Peaky Blinders creator Knight, a huge fan of the band, is writer-creator.
Angela Jain, Head of Content, Disney+ EMEA, said: “The great wait is over…as we now bring Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger to as many people as possible through Disney+, and to be doing it with exclusive unseen footage too, is so exciting for fans. The Oasis reunion has been one of our defining cultural moments of recent times. We have seen how the documentary has resonated with audiences around the world as they celebrate the power of Oasis and music through this evocative and moving reunion story.”
Oasis featured for the first time in a Saturday Night Live UK cold open over the weekend, with the Gallagher brothers revealing themselves as Russian spies after almost convincing Prime Minister Andy Burnham to join them.
Featuring never-before-seen footage, the film is a Magna Studios production, presented by Sony Music Vision in association with Sony Music Entertainment UK. The producers are Sam Bridger and Guy Heeley. The executive producers include Kate Shepherd, Marisa Clifford, Davud Karbassioun, Rob Stringer, Tom Mackay, Krista Wegener, Thomas Benski, Isabel Davis, and Tim O’Shea, with Oscar-winning sound mixers James Mather and Tarn Willers, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos and editors George Cragg and Martina Zamolo leading the creative technical team. The film was commissioned by VP Unscripted Content for Disney+ EMEA, Sean Doyle.
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movies
Peter Antoniou Tour Dates For 2027 Announced (EXCLUSIVE)
EXCLUSIVE: British comedian and mind reader Peter Antoniou has announced a big set of tour dates for 2027.
From a childhood fascination with a tarot deck to performing for audiences around the world, Antoniou has built a career around turning the impossible into unforgettable theatre. His live performances combine comedy and audience interaction with moments of mind reading that leave crowds feeling as though they’ve stepped inside an episode of The Twilight Zone. No two performances are alike as Antoniou relies on the audience’s thoughts and secrets to craft the show.
Fresh off his nationwide Pretty Psychic tour, Antoniou’s new show, Peter Antoniou: Brain Teaser, pushes the experience further than ever before.
“This show is bigger, bolder, and more ambitious than anything I’ve done,” he says. “The only missing piece is your brain.”
Tickets will be available beginning with the Citi Presale on Tuesday, September 29 at 10 a.m. local time, running through Thursday, October 1 at 11:59 p.m. local time. They’ll go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 2 at 10 a.m. local.
Antoniou developed his craft through years of study with practitioners ranging from tarot readers and psychics to hypnotists, magicians, and psychologists. He’s repped by Val Sloot at Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. View his list of tour dates below.
PETER ANTONIOU: BRAIN TEASER 2027 TOUR:
Thu, Jan 14 Napa, CA at Uptown Theatre*
Fri, Jan 15 Monterey, CA at Golden State Theatre*
Sat, Jan 16 SLO, CA at Fremont Theater*
Sun, Jan 17 Ventura, CA at Ventura Music Hall*
Wed, Jan 20 Norfolk, VA at Attucks Theatre
Thu, Jan 21 Durham, NC at Carolina Theatre of Durham/Fletcher Hall
Fri, Jan 22 Charlotte, NC at The Fillmore Charlotte
Sat, Jan 23 Atlanta, GA at Buckhead Theatre
Sun, Jan 24 Lexington, KY at Lexington Opera House
Thu, Jan 28 Silver Spring, MD at The Fillmore Silver Spring
Fri, Jan 29 New York, NY at The Gramercy Theatre
Sat, Jan 30 Mckees Rocks, PA at Roxian Theatre Presented by Citizens
Sun, Jan 31 Philadelphia, PA at The Fillmore Philadelphia
Tue, Feb 2 Exeter, UK at Phoenix
Wed, Feb 3 Cardiff, UK at Glee
Thu, Feb 4 Bath, UK at Komedia
Fri, Feb 5 London, UK at Leicester Square Theatre
Sun, Feb 7 Bristol, UK at Hen and Chicken
Mon, Feb 8 Cambridge, UK at Junction
Tue, Feb 9 Leicester, UK at Y Theatre
Wed, Feb 10 Sheffield, UK at Leadmill
Thu, Feb 11 Liverpool, UK at Hot Water
Fri, Feb 12 Belfast, UK at Limelight
Sat, Feb 13 Dublin, IE at Ambassador
Sun, Feb 14 Manchester, UK at New Century Hall
Tue, Feb 16 Newcastle, UK at Stand
Wed, Feb 17 Edinburgh, UK at Monkey Barrell
Thu, Feb 18 Glasgow, UK at Glee
Sun, Feb 21 Vancouver, BC at The Chan Centre*
Thu, Feb 25 Denver, CO at Paramount Theatre
Fri, Feb 26 Minneapolis, MN at The Fillmore Minneapolis
Sat, Feb 27 Salt Lake City, UT at The Depot
Thu, Mar 11 Spokane, WA at Bing Crosby Theatre
Fri, Mar 12 Seattle, WA at The Neptune Theatre
Sat, Mar 13 Salem, OR at Historic Elsinore Theatre
Sun, Mar 14 Boise, ID at Egyptian Theatre
Thu, Mar 18 Tucson, AZ at Rialto Theatre
Fri, Mar 19 Phoenix, AZ at The Van Buren
Sat, Mar 20 San Diego, CA at Observatory SD
Thu, Apr 1 Anaheim, CA at The Grove of Anaheim
Fri, Apr 2 Los Angeles, CA at Wilshire Ebell Theatre
Sat, Apr 3 San Francisco, CA at Palace of Fine Arts
Fri, Apr 9 Tampa, FL at Tampa Theatre
Sat, Apr 10 Ft. Lauderdale, FL at Wells Hall at The Parker
Sat, May 1 Lancaster, CA at Lancaster PAC*
Thu, May 6 Dallas, TX at House of Blues
Fri, May 7 Houston, TX at House of Blues
Sat, May 8 San Antonio, TX at The Aztec Theatre
*Not a Live Nation show
This story originated as part of Deadline’s Comedy Means Business newsletter. Sign up here.
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movies
Boyzone Live Concert Coming To Sky From Curious Films
EXCLUSIVE: A Toxic Love Story producer Curious Films is moving into the live space with a new Boyzone concert film following the smash success of its Sky doc.
Last year, Boyzone: No Matter What became Sky’s most-watched unscripted series of all time and was the catalyst for the Irish superstars getting back together. Curious Films has subsequently produced a fourth and fifth episode showing Ronan Keating and co reforming and we can reveal has also recorded the band’s live concert from the Emirates Stadium, London, which took place over the summer and will air later this year on Sky.
The Boyzone: One for the Road live one-off is a first for a UK documentaries indie that has spent the past few years nurturing a reputation for making big true crime and pop culture hits for the streamers including Netflix’s A Toxic Love Story, and Hulu’s Welcome to the Family and Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth.
Curious boss Dov Freedman said the decision to make the live show “came quite late in the day” and involved a much faster turnaround than the London-headquartered outfit is used to.
“[The live show] was a refreshing addition to the retrospective work we do,” said Freedman. “We can spend 18 months or two years making crime documentaries, whereas the concert film had a much faster turnaround. It involved a different dynamic, different producers and different skills. We had around 40 staff working on it and shot it with about 25 cameras. It looked fantastic, and we’re definitely looking to do more in that space.”
Curious’ timing is good as the streamers double down on live content mainly in areas like music and sport. Netflix UK recently forged a commissioning team dedicated to live.
Curious’ “knew we had something” when it started filming the first Boyzone doc and the “pain close to the surface” from the band members became clear, Freedman said.
Things got even clearer when the band’s former manager Louis Walsh was interviewed and “they all had different perspectives on the same story.” Walsh has described claims made by band members in the doc as “fiction rather than fact.”
“The first time we got in a room with the band, we sensed that we were onto something,” said Freedman. “They were all going to be very honest, which felt refreshing.”
“Outsider perspective”
Curious is keen to do more live but will continue to mainly do what it does best, Freedman said, focusing on true crime and popular culture. It recently entered a new era following the departure of Freedman’s co-founder Charlie Russell, who has been replaced by the promoted MD Nicky Varley, someone who Freedman said has “played an important role in building our relationships with Hulu, Netflix and National Geographic.”
Curious’ approach in part over recent years has been to examine “big American ‘ripped from the headlines’ stories” and deliver them with “craft,” Freedman said. He reckons British docmakers have a particular sensibility, which suits this approach.
“We always saw America as a good opportunity,” he added. “This isn’t new – companies that came before Curious have been doing it much longer – but we believed our Britishness and outsider status could help us get access to stories that U.S. producers might not be able to access in quite the same way. That outsider perspective can also give us a different approach to telling the stories.”
Shows may have aired in the past about the subjects of Welcome to the Family or A Toxic Love Story, but Freedman questioned whether they were “made too quickly or reacted to events too soon.” “When we take on a story, we try to tell the definitive version,” he added. “That’s often about timing.”
In the case of these two shows it paid off.
Following a jaw-dropping revenge plot involving a newly-married U.S. Marshal and his ex-girlfriend, A Toxic Love Story has hit numerous Netflix top 10s since launching over the summer. Welcome to the Family, which tells of the brutal murder of law professor Dan Markel, has spent days as Disney+’s no. 1 show in both the U.S. and UK.
“If you look across Curious’s slate over the last couple of years we’ve been able to deliver large audiences at a time when audiences are fragmented and competition for viewers has never been higher,” said Freedman.
He said Welcome to the Family has kept the “very good” Hulu scripted series Furious off the top spot for a while now. “If you compare the cost of Welcome to the Family with the cost of a scripted series such as Furious, I think streamers and buyers are looking closely at the audiences that true-crime stories can bring,” he added.
Curious wants to double down in America and Freedman speaks with Deadline from L.A., which he will visit three to four times per year and says is “really starting to pay off.”
In the offing is another Netflix true crime series for early next year, which Freedman is keeping mum about, and a show about a “story I’ve always liked that people know, but they only know one side of it,” he added, intriguingly.
Freedman’s view on the docs commissioning landscape more generally is “mixed.”
On the one hand, “it’s harder than ever to get greenlights, competition is intense for stories that everyone knows are working, and buyers are making fewer bets each year.”
On the other, “documentaries have never been more popular or attracted such large audiences.”
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