Mariska Hargitay Says She and Christopher Meloni Filmed a Kiss for ‘Law & Order: SVU’: ‘It Was Earned’

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni once filmed a kiss scene for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but it was tragically cut.

The 62-year-old actress revealed on the Tuesday, April 27 episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast that creator Dick Wolf, 79, ensured the intimate scene between her character, Olivia Benson — who she has portrayed for 27 seasons on the NBC show — and Meloni’s alter ego, Elliot Stabler, never aired.

The scene between the longtime partners, who fans have been hoping will get together for years, was filmed for the Season 24 episode “Blood Out,” she said on the podcast, which was filmed in front of a crowd at the Napa Valley StreamFest.

“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,” Hargitay revealed, as the audience went wild.

“Don’t you wish you were there for that?!” she asked them. “Yeah. We shot it a couple different ways. And then they [Wolf and others] had the choice in editing.”

They decided to use the take in which Benson pulled away from Stabler’s advances, saying she was “not ready for this.”

However, Hargitay has now revealed she and Meloni didn’t agree with show bosses’ decision to axe their on-camera kiss.

“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,” the ER alum argued. “[But] no matter what I want, Dick Wolf can totally just say, ‘Uh, no.’ ”

But all is not lost for SUV superfans.

The My Mom Jayne director also teased that Meloni — whose spinoff series, Law & Order: Organized Crime, was just canceled — could make an SVU comeback as a guest, so there’s hope for Benson and Stabler.

“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,” she joked, imitating the iconic L&O theme sound. “See what I did there?”

For now, Hargitay is gearing up to direct a new SUV episode in 2027.

“They just asked me to direct the 600th!” she revealed. “Which is episode six next year. It’s crazy. Even I can’t download it. Even I go, ‘Wait, what?!’ No, it’s nuts.”