On the surface, Olivia Benson and Jayne Mansfield have little to nothing in common.
One is a fearless, intelligent rape survivor and police detective on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, while the other is best known as a 1950s bombshell whose voluptuous assets once even caused Sophia Loren to give her some serious side-eye.
But Mariska Hargitay has learned to reframe her perspective of the character she’s played for more than 20 years and that of her late mother, understanding that Mansfield’s breathy put-on voice and sexy pin-up image were limiting parameters that her highly intelligent mom was forced to work within.
“It’s been incredible to see how women were treated and really put into a box,” Hargitay tells Entertainment Weekly. “That is something I was personally fighting against in every way. And now, how incredible it is to see women redefining themselves.”
This redefinition is at the heart of My Mom Jayne, Hargitay’s directorial debut and a documentary about her efforts to better understand the mother she never truly knew (Mansfield died in a tragic car crash in 1967, when Hargitay was only 3). In the film, Hargitay explains the shame she felt for years over her mother’s career and “dumb blonde” image.
“[Her] career made me want to do it differently,” Hargitay says in the documentary of her mom, who played classical violin and piano, and spoke five languages. “I disowned the part of myself that was my mother’s daughter.”
With the film, Hargitay is reclaiming her identity, allowing her to finally see parts of herself in her mother that she had long tried to ignore or deny. But it is striking that someone so determined to fight against Mansfield’s 1950s bombshell persona ended up portraying a strong, intelligent detective for the majority of her career. Was it an intentional repudiation of what Mansfield stood for?
“I don’t know if I thought that on a conscious level,” Hargitay says. “But everything about Law & Order and the character felt so right. It was what I wanted to do, what I felt I was capable of. I loved this character. I was a thousand percent sure that I wanted to do it. I had never been more sure about anything. When I read it, I was like, ‘This is it.’ Playing a woman with this kind of strength was so right to me.”
She continues: “At the end of the day, I have picked roles and made very specific choices about the kind of career that I wanted to have. So, it definitely played a part unconsciously.”
However, Hargitay also says that she recognizes now that her response to her mother’s image was also a response to the system that gave women very few options on screen. “That’s why the character of Olivia Benson, I make my own rules,” she explains. “Nobody tells me what to do. Olivia and I together are strong and think things through in a different way as opposed to accepting the limitations that are bestowed on us — or that the patriarchy wants to put on us. The way my mother was treated certainly informed how I decided to go through the world.”
In the film, Hargitay addresses her mother directly, saying, “I see myself in you for the first time — in your smile, in your laugh.” By extension, does that mean she can now see parts of Mansfield in the character she’s portrayed for over two decades?
“Her compassion,” Hargitay says of a potential shared trait between her mom and Olivia Benson. “I know that [my mom] was a deeply, deeply kind, compassionate, and empathetic, loving person. But Olivia is fearless and certainly not afraid of confrontation. She makes up her own rules and lives by a different code.”
Hargitay says she’s also been able to see her mother in a new light thanks to Gloria Steinem, who Hargitay credits in the film.
“Gloria has been a hero and a mentor of mine,” she explains. “It’s been an extraordinary friendship. She’s somebody that I identified with and who made me feel seen in a lot of ways. Somebody that, when I struggled with the image of my mother, I could look to.”
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The actress says she’s experiencing a full-circle moment given this new appreciation she has for her mom. “That’s been glorious. I’m so in awe of what she did, what she accomplished, and what she navigated,” Hargitay reflects. “Her determination, her appetite, and her ambition, what she wanted to achieve, while at the same time wanting this full life, it’s really extraordinary. And I do believe in so many ways she was ahead of her time.”
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