Mariska Hargitay Reflects on Her 25-Year Friendship with Christopher Meloni: He ‘Changed My Life’ (Exclusive)

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni will be partners for life.

The actress, producer and director opens up to PEOPLE for this week’s cover story about her friendship with Meloni, which has spanned more than two decades.

“We met and the rest is history,” says the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit star. “He’s cool. [He’s] someone who changed my life so much, someone I love.”

Mariska Hargitay celebrates 25 years Law and order: SVU and turns 60: ‘This powerful woman appeared’ (exclusive)

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni 2000 Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Hargitay, 59, and Meloni, 62, first met during the audition process for ALL when she mistakenly thought he was actor John Slattery — a story Hargitay knows is “famous” some 25 years later, as is the story of how they got involved in their big moment with the directors.

“[Chris] he was telling me a story as we went into the network’s host screen test and he finished his story,” she recalls, adding that he always ate “cajones”.

“It was like that from the first minute,” she says. “It just took off.”

Mariska Hargitay makes fun of Christopher Meloni’s bald head: ‘Rapunzel, let your hair down’

Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay in 2003. Evan Agostini/Getty

The on-screen chemistry between Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson proved to be just as strong as their friendship – and Hargitay had big feelings right away.

“I thought, ‘If they put me with him, this is my role.’ And he said the same. He says, ‘I want her.’ And then he and I hit it off,” she recalls, citing Melon’s “energy, confidence, power” and “the way he looked.”

She continues, “He was the guy. I knew he was the guy just by reading the script. He was New York, that dark horse, but funny, light. I’m so thankful that those magical stars collided.”

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni 2010. Kevin Winter/Getty

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After Meloni left the show as a stablemate in 2011, Hargitay’s Benson stepped into her own, rising through the ranks from detective all the way to SVU captain. Now Meloni is back and acting alone Law and order spinoff show Organized crimeand these two series often cross.

Fans have been rooting for Benson and Stabler’s romance since the show’s inception, and Hargitay likes to describe the chemistry she shares with Meloni as “easy, effortless, and deserved.”

Mariska Hargitay knows Benson and Stabler’s romance on ‘Law & Order: SVU’ has been ‘so long coming’

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni 2022. Chris Haston/NBC via Getty

So, when asked to describe what the two share beige using those words, Hargitay ponders the question.

“It’s intense,” he says after a long pause, “it’s intimate and soothing.”

For more on Mariska Hargitay, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

Law and order: SVU returns to NBC for its 25th season on Thursday, January 18 at 9:00 PM ET, followed by Law and order: organized crime at 10:00 PM ET.

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Source: HIS Education